Starlink Enters National Radio Quiet Zone (arstechnica.com) 50
Starlink has launched home Internet service to 99.5% of residents in the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) after a multi-year collaboration with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to minimize interference with radio telescopes. "The vast majority of people within the areas of Virginia and West Virginia collectively known as the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) can now receive high speed satellite Internet service," the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory announced said. "The newly available service is the result of a nearly three-year collaborative engineering effort between the US National Science Foundation (NSF), SpaceX, and the NSF National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO), which operates the NSF Green Bank Observatory (NSF GBO) in West Virginia within the NRQZ." Ars Technica reports: There's a controversy over the 0.5 percent of residents who aren't included and are said to be newly blocked from using the Starlink Roam service. Starlink markets Roam as a service for people to use while traveling, not as a fixed home Internet service. The Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management last week issued a press release (PDF) saying that "customers with the RV/Roam packages had been using Starlink for approximately two years throughout 100% of the NRQZ. Now, the 0.5% have lost coverage after having it for two years. This means that a large section of southeastern Pendleton County and an even larger section of northern Pocahontas will NOT be able to utilize Starlink."
PCMag wrote that "Starlink is now live in 42 of the 46 cell areas around the Green Bank Observatory's telescopes." Pendleton County Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Gillespie told Ars today that Roam coverage was cut off in the remaining four cell areas. "After the agreement, we all lost effective use within the four cells," Gillespie told Ars in an email. Gillespie's press release said that, "in many cases, Starlink was the only Internet provider option residents and emergency responders had. This is unacceptable."
PCMag wrote that "Starlink is now live in 42 of the 46 cell areas around the Green Bank Observatory's telescopes." Pendleton County Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Gillespie told Ars today that Roam coverage was cut off in the remaining four cell areas. "After the agreement, we all lost effective use within the four cells," Gillespie told Ars in an email. Gillespie's press release said that, "in many cases, Starlink was the only Internet provider option residents and emergency responders had. This is unacceptable."
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how is hoarding all our capital actually helping humanity?
when 85% of our capital is being held by the upper class, that leaves 15% of all capital for the rest of us to function with
this is classism
I don't get it (Score:3, Informative)
Why the frig were any of them there in the first place? Surely they understand the importance of having radio free zones. It's sounding a lot like building a house next to an existing speedway and then complaining about the noise.
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Re: I don't get it (Score:2)
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And it hasn't occurred to you that it could have been the other way around? Like building a speedway next to an existing house?
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
Not given how long that zone has been there for ... established 1958.
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And Starlink is very recent invader.
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Many of those families have lived on that land for hundreds or thousands of years.
Without radios. They can keep living as their ancestors lived, Or they can sell and relocate/move out to property that does not carry the restrictions against updating to introduce modern technology.
The Quiet zone existed before modern technology existed thus the rules would have priority over new tech invented since, And they don't get to introduce that now to the area against the laws; just because it is now convenient.
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Laws can be changed whenever it's convenient to the lawmakers.
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That is not the case here. The quiet zone has been in place with the law this way for nearly 70 years.
For most of the quiet zone the law does not restrain consumers directly: it restrains operators of transmitter facilities such as Starlink and cell phone carriers mandating that they co-ordinate to avoid causing any interference.
Also in general law changes cannot prohibit uses of property that is already in effect at the time of the law passing, since it would be a violation of 5th amendment rights. And
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Their funding comes from government, they'll do what they're told. No need to take when they give it away.
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How is that an argument? Have you never seen a house older than 70 years? Because where I live there are houses that are over 500 years old and people still live there.
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Exactly. As far is I understand, using Starlink there was always illegal, temporary or not.
The only difference is that it is now technically enforced.
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Why the frig were any of them there in the first place?
There was a recent story about people who are convinced they're suffering physical symptoms from EM radiation. I'm not sure how they're going to react. I really wish we could just not tell them and see if they develop symptoms.
Surely they understand the importance of having radio free zones.
They do but for a bunch of nonsensical reasons. I couldn't say if they understand why it's important for radio astronomy.
Screw it. Let's just build a radio telescope on the far side of the moon.
Re: I don't get it (Score:2)
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I expect there were tests etc , so they're already exposed and not experiencing symptoms. I predict they'll develop symptoms as soon as they become aware of the "EM radiation".
No doubt. I also have no doubt all the testing in the world will not convince someone who claims to be WiFi sensitive it's all in their heads.
I mean, the test is easy to design. Find some people who exhibit symptoms. Move them to homes built in Faraday cages. Using a double blind, put WiFi transmitters in half the houses. Turn the transmitters on and off at unpredictable intervals. Look for a correlation, both in terms of time and location. The only question would be how long does an exposure have to be bef
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Wikipedia tells me "The county was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1788".
Who build what next to what?
Won't this endanger the people? (Score:4, Interesting)
As a recent article on here [slashdot.org] (and elsewhere) recently reminded us, there are people who moved to this radio quiet zone because radio waves are making them sick. They have repeatedly told us cell phones and microwaves and other electronics cause health issues.
Would they like to explain how having electromagnetic radiation beamed at them from close distance (relatively speaking) won't affect their health?
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Most people seeking this moved there long before Starlink was around. Not that I think that the RFZ is their remedy. More likely the lower stress levels have helped.
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Well, Starlink has been operating there for quite a while. The people who moved there for the radio-free zone reported that their symptoms went away after moving. So it must be that radio waves from space don't cause them symptoms. Only WiFi and terrestrial cellular networks. This is good because it means that everybody can have internet, the radio telescope still works, and those people are now symptom free. What's not to be happy about? Admittedly, it's somewhat surprising in that a signal reaching a satellite needs to be much more powerful than one reaching a local tower or WiFi hotspot, but we have engineering studies that it won't interfere with the radio telescope and we have been operating Starlink for ages without any reported health issues, so I guess all's well that ends well.
Electrosensitivity is undoubtedly psychosomatic, how much do you want to bet that their symptoms suddenly come back when they hear about the Starlink service?
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Mostly. There are people who really are electrosensitive, and they live in the back woods with no electricity and no electronics. Popular Science did an interview with one of them back in 2010, and they had to park their car a mile away, wear a mechanical watch, and use an old school manual film camera.
The guy worked for Ericsson, the phone company ins
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Mostly. There are people who really are electrosensitive, and they live in the back woods with no electricity and no electronics. Popular Science did an interview with one of them back in 2010, and they had to park their car a mile away, wear a mechanical watch, and use an old school manual film camera.
I have no doubt his belief is sincere, but I didn't see any evidence of him actually being electrosensitive. For instance, if one of those interviewers had forgotten about a second cell phone they were carrying, would he have known?
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Would they like to explain how having electromagnetic radiation beamed at them from close distance (relatively speaking) won't affect their health?
You see this is Elon Musk brand radiation. It actually has a soothing, healing power that the other liberal radiation can't do, due to Musk's genius. I have seen multiple people's lives destroyed by that communist radiation.
On a more serious note, if the private sector won't build affordable internet in the sticks, it's the government's job to do so. If those people hate the govt and vote for ineffective, corrupt officials....that's a vicious cycle.
Unfortunately TFA doesn't help (Score:2)
The article itself doesn't explain *why* that small subset of users have been cut off either.
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Simple, just look at graphics of radio signals. They live where only the dip of the frequency sine wave reaches them, thus no signal.
They should move their house a few metres to see if they receive a better signal then.
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Why do something easy when one can do it interestingly?
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Because those are the specific cells closest to the Green Bank Observatory and Sugar Grove Research station, and the base stations probably still create enough interference to be an issue in those areas.
radio telescopes should be space based (Score:2)
shouldn't they?
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This would be logical for new instruments, But someone has to pay to build them and deploy them which takes decades.
Also; I'm pretty sure these re would still be demand to use the telescopes already built to get as much value out of the expenses necessary to build them as possible -- Telescope installations have some sort of lifecycle, and you don't just shutter them all because a newer better telescope has been built somewhere. Scientists need time on telescopes for their work and that telescope time i
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Given enough time and money ... yes, I suppose so. But radio astronomers, like everyone else, live in a world of constraints. You do what you can with what you have and where you are, because the doing is worth it. And there are too many things to do for any space-based infrastructure to support them all.
Consider the optical side. In terms of science created per dollar spent, the Hubble telescope was one of the most successful scientific endeavors in human history. But only a small fraction of the world's a
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these scientists have enough money to live upper class lifestyles
big science has become corrupted by classism
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these scientists have enough money to live upper class lifestyles
big science has become corrupted by classism
You could not be more wrong. For part of my career, I worked in somewhat-big-science -- specifically in academia, on decent-sized research projects. Salaries are set by the institutions and typically are below what a person with the same skills would earn in a company. Competition for grants is fierce: typical success rate for applications is one in 5 to 10.
Most research scientists can enjoy a comfortable middle-class to upper-middle-class lifestyle. Those who become wealthy -- the "rock stars", broadcaster
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Not true, these upper class 'scientists' all make six figure salaries, most have tenure, with full pensions and benefits, meanwhile the cleaning staff makes minimum wage, have no job security, slave wages, no benefits, no retirement and no vacations.
so really, take your classist self-serving denial and, oh well, you know ...
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I think what GP is trying to refer to is the split between blue and white collar knowledge-work. You've got people who actually spend all day every day doing paperwork and occasionally lab work and whose salary depends on genuinely producing tangible output, and people whose salary depends on being publicly seen saying the right things.
It's the same in the corporate world. The serf class and the church.
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I think what GP is trying to refer to is the split between blue and white collar knowledge-work. You've got people who actually spend all day every day doing paperwork and occasionally lab work and whose salary depends on genuinely producing tangible output, and people whose salary depends on being publicly seen saying the right things.
People in the latter group are PR spokespeople, not scientists.
I disagree with 2TecTom (and I suspect with you also) on where the "split" occurs. 2TecTom thinks scientists are in the "upper class" and I strongly disagree, as I explained.
You may notice that 2TecTom uses the word "classism" or its variants in practically every post he makes. I don't doubt that classism exists, but he tends to see it where it doesn't exist. That, and I think he needs a thesaurus.
It's the same in the corporate world. The serf class and the church.
Fine, but what happened to the middle class? Tha
Steering satellite beams away from telescopes (Score:2)