News: 0175378941

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Starlink Enters National Radio Quiet Zone (arstechnica.com)

(Saturday November 02, 2024 @06:00AM (BeauHD) from the technical-advances dept.)


Starlink has [1]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 [2]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 [3]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 [4]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."

>

> [5]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."



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/starlink-enters-national-radio-quiet-zone-but-reportedly-cut-off-access-for-some/

[2] https://public.nrao.edu/news/over-99-5-of-residents-in-the-national-radio-quiet-zone-can-now-receive-satellite-internet-service/

[3] https://www.starlink.com/us/roam

[4] https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Pendleton_NRQZ_Press_Release_20241026.pdf

[5] https://www.pcmag.com/news/let-there-be-broadband-spacex-lights-up-starlink-in-us-national-radio-quiet


Re: (Score:1)

by Anonymous Coward

you trump supporters sound desperate.

I don't get it (Score:2)

by evanh ( 627108 )

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.

Re: (Score:2)

by dunkelfalke ( 91624 )

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?

Won't this endanger the people? (Score:2)

by quonset ( 4839537 )

As a recent article [1]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?

[1] https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/24/10/18/2342223/west-virginia-town-of-green-bank-has-become-a-refuge-for-electrosensitive-people

Unfortunately TFA doesn't help (Score:2)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )

The article itself doesn't explain *why* that small subset of users have been cut off either.

A sheet of paper crossed my desk the other day and as I read it,
realization of a basic truth came over me. So simple! So obvious we couldn't
see it. John Knivlen, Chairman of Polamar Repeater Club, an amateur radio
group, had discovered how IC circuits work. He says that smoke is the thing
that makes ICs work because every time you let the smoke out of an IC circuit,
it stops working. He claims to have verified this with thorough testing.
I was flabbergasted! Of course! Smoke makes all things electrical
work. Remember the last time smoke escaped from your Lucas voltage regulator
Didn't it quit working? I sat and smiled like an idiot as more of the truth
dawned. It's the wiring harness that carries the smoke from one device to
another in your Mini, MG or Jag. And when the harness springs a leak, it lets
the smoke out of everything at once, and then nothing works. The starter
motor requires large quantities of smoke to operate properly, and that's why
the wire going to it is so large.
Feeling very smug, I continued to expand my hypothesis. Why are Lucas
electronics more likely to leak than say Bosch? Hmmm... Aha!!! Lucas is
British, and all things British leak! British convertible tops leak water,
British engines leak oil, British displacer units leak hydrostatic fluid, and
I might add Brititsh tires leak air, and the British defense unit leaks
secrets... so naturally British electronics leak smoke.
-- Jack Banton, PCC Automotive Electrical School

[Ummm ... IC circuits? Integrated circuit circuits?]