Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
The National Radio Quiet Zone was established in 1956 to protect the telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory – now Green Bank Observatory – from outside interference such as cars with spark plugs, ham radios and other electronics.
It didn’t seem to be too much of an issue back then, but technology advanced and when wireless services were developed, it was a great new way to connect worldwide.
The only problem was, wireless routers cause radio interference for the telescopes, especially the Green Bank Telescope.
For more than a decade, the GBO dealt with more and more wireless routers showing up in the Green Bank community and looked for ways to work around the “noise.”
Knowing that technology would only continue to advance and the need for wireless connectivity would become greater, GBO scientists came up with a way where both sides win – the community can have WiFi and research can continue.
GBO director Tony Remijan worked with radio astronomer Chris De Pree to find a frequency that could be open to the public that would not halt research at the facility.
“One of the first things I did, working with Chris, was look at the data that was being collected and what kind of science was being done, and the impact that WiFi over the course of the last decade or so had one scientific observations,” Remijan said. “What we found was that scientists are pretty clever.
“They found ways to still do some really groundbreaking science even though the interference started to increase as we started to see more and more WiFi in the community,” he added.
Looking at the science, Remijan said the most interference was coming in on the 2.4 gigahertz frequency. With that in mind, the GBO made the decision to allow communities inside the 10 mile radius of the center of the quiet zone to have WiFi that operates on the 2.4 gigahertz frequency.
De Pree explained that most WiFi routers come equipped with three frequencies – 2.4, 5 and 6. In their research, the GBO noticed that the 5 and 6 frequencies were still relatively quiet and it wants to keep it that way.
“A lot of routers have fairly simple settings that you can go in and disable the higher frequency ones, which are bands we want to keep quiet around the observatory,” De Pree said. “The challenge is some routers actually don’t have user addressable settings and so that’s one issue that we’re looking at.”
To address those issues and ensure that everyone in the community knows how to set their WiFi routers to 2.4 gigahertz, zone regulatory services coordinator Sheldon Wasik is working with senior public information manager Jill Malusky to create instructions that will be free to the public.
“Every router is kind of different, so in our document that is shared publicly, we took a really good attempt at identifying your five or six most common routers,” Wasik said. “We tried to identify which of those are good and which of those are bad – bad being that you can’t actually go in and turn off the five and six gigahertz as a user.”
The document includes contact information for those who are having issues with making the changes to their routers or have any other questions regarding the new regulations.
One of the biggest benefits to the new changes is that Green Bank Elementary-Middle School will now have access to WiFi, which will help the students use their school-issued devices and will make it easier for the school to do standardized testing.
While the new regulations are a big change for the observatory, it doesn’t change the fact that the National Radio Quiet Zone is one of the quietest locations in the world when it comes to astronomy observations.
The GBT is still at the cutting edge of technology, considering it will turn 26 this year. That is due to the GBO staff’s ability to keep it updated and in working order.
“It’s exceeded expectations,” Remijan said. “We are going through major infrastructure and changes right now to keep it operating and relevant and the scientific leader in the scientific community for the next twenty-five years. There’s a lot going on right now with all the painting and foundation work and new instrumentation, and everything to keep the GBT at the forefront of science.
“This is just another way that the community can help with that,” he continued, referring to the WiFi changes. “Keep it as quiet as possible. Reach out, work with us.”
The NRQZ is not the only quiet zone in the world, but it is, relatively speaking, the quietest quiet zone, mainly because it was founded so long ago.
“It’s certainly a site that could not be created today,” De Pree said. “It was created back in the fifties at a time when a radio quiet zone was possible. Maintaining it takes work and cooperation, and community involvement and good communication on our part.”
Researchers from around the world seek out time on the GBT because of how “quiet” it is. Some have to be reminded that there is still interference that the GBT has to work around, but nowhere near as much at other observatories.
“It’s interesting, I’ve been in talks with folks on the industry side where they’ll say, ‘well it’s amazing that there’s no radio transmissions in the entire quiet zone’ and we always have to push back on that and say, there are actually a lot,” De Pree said. “It’s just that any fixed transmitters have to coordinate in order to have a license in the area.”
There is a lot of noise in the 13,000 square miles of the entire NRQZ – including cell phone towers – but in the center, in what is known the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zone, there is much less.
All the things that create noise are regulated and users enter agreements with the GBO on operating in the area.
“As far as ham operators, we kind of had some voluntary agreements and open discussions in place for where they do and don’t have to coordinate with us,” Wasik said. “They are very understanding and open to all of that because they are secondary calls for emergency responses.
“We have worked largely with the emergency services departments in all of the counties surrounding us to let them operate above our limits in certain frequency bands where we receive less impact or minimal risk of interference in the long run,” he added.
Regardless of how strict or loose the regulations are in the quiet zone, there will never be absolute silence and the GBO is fully aware of that.
“We’re not looking for silent,” Remijan said. “Silent is not the goal. Just quiet. That’s why we’re making these efforts to reach out to the community to help us keep it as quiet as possible.”
Living under restrictions can be difficult and the GBO understands it can be frustrating to make changes, but it also hopes the community understands that the sacrifice is helping keep the observatory at the top of the astronomy research world.
“Our goal here is to make compliance with the rules as easy as possible,” De Pree said. “We’re here as a resource. I think that’s one of our major messages is that we want to help make these routers function in the best way possible for everyone, as easy as possible.
“This is a deliberate compromise that we have made between the scientists and the community,” he continued. “We listened to the community’s needs and this seems to be a way to address both sides in a way that we can deal with. The majority of the community, I think, wants to do what they can to help us meet our mission in a way that still allows them to have access to the web. These are both important things.”
To access the document with instructions on changing your wireless router, visit: https://greenbankobservatory.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/How-to-Turn-Off-5-GHz-WiFi-on-Common-Router-Models.pdf
