Silence! The Last of the Giant Radio Telescopes Is Listening to the Universe

[MPSCS]

Be sure to view all the pictures!

Silence! The Last of the Giant Radio Telescopes Is Listening to the Universe | Wired Science | Wired.com

[MOGA]

Very cool instrument and write-up, thanks for sharing. I can't help to think that I'd be pretty irritated if I was asked to power down wireless routers, radio scanners, plasma tvs, and amateur radio equipment because I have a big ass radio telescope as a neighbor.

Unless, that is, I was permitted to put up a SWL antenna on top that thing somewhere. That might make up for it.

[N_Jay]

Originally Posted by MOGA

. . . I can't help to think that I'd be pretty irritated if I was asked to power down wireless routers, radio scanners, plasma tvs, and amateur radio equipment because I have a big ass radio telescope as a neighbor. . . . .

Maybe that is why they call it the National Radio Quiet Zone".

It was there long before your wireless routers, radio scanners, plasma tvs, and amateur radio equipment!
United States National Radio Quiet Zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Radio Quiet Zone

[MOGA]

After performing a little fact checking, why yes, I suppose your right on most counts. However, NRQZ was mandated in 1958, which of course does not predate the use of amateur radio. Now, call me crazy, as I am and have pretty much always been a city slicker, although I want to change my ways, but it seems to me that there isn't a lot of movement in and out of WV. I am making an assumption here but I feel confident in opining that many Mountaineers are lifelong citizens and perhaps indeed their entire families have been. So, it is not entirely unlikely that some residents predate the NRQZ that use HAM radio, and in their cases, if I were them....but honestly, that was a passing observation and not anything that I intend to debate as I simply quipped that comment in a fleeting moment. To be honest, I would never live in WV. Beautiful, breathtaking country without a doubt, but way too close to the Northeast Corridor for my liking. When the SHTF, guess where every Tom Dick and Harry from DC, Philly, and Baltimore will be while they try to get out of the mayhem of metropolitan USA? You guessed it.

On an interesting note, it seems that part 97.205 stations are specifically affected by the NRAZ. Does that mean that an amateur station is permitted in the NRAZ grid, but not an amateur repeater? I wonder if an non-repeating amateur station is permissible if it is under a certain PEP?

[gcgrotz]

Ham repeaters do have to be co-ordinated through the QZ, mostly it is just advisory. There are plenty of good repeaters over there. HF below 30 MHz is not affected.

ALL commercial activity has to go through them. When I was in paging, they were very hard on 900 MHz transmitters. 1.9 GHz pcs has to go through them even, 800 Mhz too. Va State PD found a site on Fork Mountain outside the zone and beamed a directional antenna back down the Valley.

The line passes right through the middle of Charlottesville, the mountaintop site south of town is outside the line. The University of VA hospital is inside the zone and they had to put their radio stuff on the mountain where it still is today.

At one time, the Navy operated a site near there in Sugar Grove, WV. Google it. There were dedicated AT&T microwave ring paths from there to DC. There were also rumors that they used moon-bounced signals to monitor VHF/UHF from behind the Iron Curtain. Of course that is all done from space now.

The Quiet Zone is very much a fact of life around here.

BTW Moga, how can you speak of life in the northeast when you live in Atlanta? Although, I have spent time in both places I would prefer Atlanta but it still is a big big city and I wouldn't want to be there either when the SHTF. Heck, I don't even want to be here when it snows!

[gcgrotz]

An added note: Green Bank is not the "Last" of the great radio telescopes by a long shot. That part of the story is just more journalistic sensationalism. There is the array in NM (did you see the movie "Contact"?) and Australia, and the NRAO is currently working with other groups building a new one in Chile.

Other than that it is a good story.

[MPSCS]

List of Radio Telescopes
List of radio telescopes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[MOGA]

Originally Posted by gcgrotz

BTW Moga, how can you speak of life in the northeast when you live in Atlanta? Although, I have spent time in both places I would prefer Atlanta but it still is a big big city and I wouldn't want to be there either when the SHTF. Heck, I don't even want to be here when it snows!

LOL! As I said before, I am trying to change my ways. It's only recently that I see the city for the death trap that it is.

Its hard enough just getting to and from any destination on a normal day. The roads would instantaneously become a parking lot for 30 miles around downtown in every direction if there was ever an event that caused a mass evacuation. Snow is a great example of how dumb people can become in this town. Although I don't think the little missus is going to allow me to pack up and move as far away from metro ATL as I'd like, I'm hoping to be at least 50 if not 75 mi out if I can help it. The problem is that I have to sell what I'm in first. Hopefully that will come to pass before the MZB begin to rove the landscape.

Gcgrotz, thanks for sharing your insight into the QZ. I don't regret taking the time to read it at all.

[MPSCS]

"The National Academies of Science has evaluated a steadily growing problem: the proliferation of WiFi and cellular phones is starting to take a serious toll on our ability to study the Earth and space using the radio spectrum. A new report calls for getting science agencies more involved in spectrum allocation, and for areas of the spectrum to be set aside as the equivalent of public parks."

Radio astronomers seeking open-spectrum national parks - Ars Technica