[Scan-DC] Digital tv/radio

[Doug Kitchener]

Wow.  Cool, thanks for the inside information.  I've always wanted to ride out there, have never done so because I figured it was just out of range for a comfortable day's drive... this might get me to do it!

DK

----------------------------------------
> From: w4jecom at w4je.com
> To: b_thom at juno.com; Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:15:24 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Digital tv/radio
>
> There is quite a bit of noise, but NRAO (which is a facility funded by my
> agency, the National Science Foundation) administers a 13,000 square mile
> National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) that surrounds our Green Bank observatory
> in West Virginia. Unfortunately, not all of our radio astronomy facilities
> are protected by such a quiet zone, so we have to coordinate the best we
> can. Arecibo, for example, is on the radio-noisy island of Puerto Rico. By
> the way, the recent rules for TV "white space" devices forbid such devices
> from operating on channel 37, and severely restricted out-of-band emissions
> for those operating on channels 36 or 38. As far as regular TV stations go,
> we carefully monitor proposed changes to the TV allotment table in case
> someone tries to put up a channel 36 or 38 near one of our observatories.
>
> The medical telemetry devices are only used in hospitals, and are for
> relaying patient data such as heart rate and respiration to central
> monitoring stations in the hospital. This allows monitoring of vital signs
> without the patients being tethered to electronics boxes, so they can walk
> around for example. When a hospital wants to install such a system, they go
> through a frequency coordinator, who notifies us, and we analyze the
> proposed system to make sure it won't interfere with any of our
> observatories operating on channel 37.
>
> Wes Sizemore, the subject of the Wired piece, is our RFI guy at Green Bank.
> He gets to spend most of his time with scanners and spectrum analyzers,
> seeking out signals that violate the Quiet Zone rules. This would be a dream
> job for a scanner enthusiast!
>
> The observatory is remote (on purpose), and is a 4.5 hour drive (if you
> drive fast) from DC, and it's not a particularly easy drive (lots of
> mountain roads). But it's a cool place. I'll be out there the week of June
> 24 - 30th, if anyone wants to pop by for an insider's tour. Cell phones and
> pagers do not work out there, and transmitting devices are strictly
> forbidden at the observatory!
>
> Cheers!
> Andy
>

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