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Even the most mundane wireless devices, like baby monitors, are considered contraband. To protect the telescopes’ sensitivity, the NRAO patrols the area: radio transmissions are restricted, Wi-Fi routers are a no-no, and microwaves may be confiscated if found. “The energy given off by a single snowflake hitting the ground and anything man-made would overwhelm that signal.” “This telescope has the sensitivity equivalent to a billionth of a billionth of a millionth of a watt,” explains Mike Holstine, the manager at NRAO. The energy released from this era has travelled over thirteen billions years, so monitoring it, as one might imagine, is something of a fragile business. And the precious data it receives allows astronomical research as far back as a few milliseconds after the Big Bang, to a period known as the Epic of Reionization, when the very first elements of life were formed. It is in fact the largest moveable object on Earth.
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Boasting a gigantic antenna – an area of 2.3 acres, rising 500 feet high – the Green Bank Telescope looks pretty sci fi. Today, it is home to one of the world’s most powerful monitoring stations: the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank. All investigations led to the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in West Virginia, where I find myself without reception today.Ĭovering a colossal 13,000 square miles, the NRQZ was established by the US Government in 1954 as a means of refining the new and exciting science of radio astronomy.
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#National radio silence zone free
A place free from society’s latest addiction a sanctuary of unconnected respite. Curious of a life offline, I started seeking out a new kind of remote. It feels vital, for some reason, to ‘connect’. But with some persistence I always manage to get online. A hundred years on, the area’s linear topography of steep ravines provides a new type of shelter, one free from any form of radio-frequency interference.Īs a portrait and documentary photographer, I’ve been lucky to travel on assignment to some truly remote locations, where mobile reception is frustratingly expensive or slow. Pocahontas County, rooted as it is in family values and the wishes of God, once provided shelter for First Nation folk who had a healthy distrust of government. On the densely forested Highway 250, the frontier spirit of the American Civil War springs to life. Thank the Lord, as they say, for Google Maps. And while I wait for my early-bird burger and fries, I scroll through my iPhone and re-check my route through the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, over the stateline and deep into a secluded pocket of West Virginia. I opt for a graffiti-strewn wooden booth at High’s diner in Monterey, Virginia. Could you live without your iPhone? Without Instagramming your every move? Photographer Emile Holba makes a pilgrimage to Pocahontas County, West Virginia, where life inside the National Radio Quiet Zone is interference-free.įorewarning from innkeeper Larry Garretson: “There are very few restaurants in Pocahontas County and they all close by 6pm, so make sure you eat tonight before entering the Quiet Zone.”