Be Quiet. We're Listening.

Scientists in West Virginia are trying to hear what the universe has to say.
But wireless devices are making it increasingly difficult.

MARCELO PRINCE / Wall Street Journal 15nov04

Nestled in a valley amid the mountains of West Virginia, surrounded by farmland and national forests, sits a giant white dish that scientists use to study the darkest corners of the universe.

The dish, more than two acres in size, serves as the antenna for a powerful telescope used by astronomers to collect faint radio waves emitted by distant stars and galaxies. It's part of an observatory set up in Green Bank, W.Va., nearly 50 years ago and financed by the federal government for university research.

But it's an endangered species. Scientists at the observatory are fighting an endless battle to save their highly sensitive telescope from man-made interference. Nearly every day, engineers must hunt down an unknown radio source, such as a faulty power line or home appliance, that's spoiling their readings. And more and more the astronomers find themselves fighting decisions in Washington that could threaten their ability to continue their research.

On the Quiet

To protect the observatory, the Federal Communications Commission created a National Radio Quiet Zone in 1958. The zone, which covers 13,000 square miles in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, restricts radio transmissions in the area and gives scientists at the observatory a say in where radio transmitters or cellphone towers can be placed in the zone. A West Virginia state law gives the observatory even more authority to restrict signals within 10 miles of the telescope. Deep within the zone, there can be no cellphone coverage or radio stations. On the observatory's grounds, cable-TV lines are buried, computer rooms are shielded with sheets of copper and staffers drive diesel cars, which don't create harmful sparks upon ignition.

But keeping the Quiet Zone silent has become increasingly difficult amid the spread of such wireless technologies as cellphones and Wi-Fi computer networks, and a push by the FCC for ever more flexible use of the electromagnetic spectrum. Of particular concern to radio astronomers is the rollout of new services, like broadband service delivered through power lines, or cars with radar collision-avoidance systems.

"We are struggling with the mushrooming growth" in wireless services, says Christopher Reynolds, a Prince Frederick, Md., lawyer who has fought to protect the Quiet Zone since the 1960s. Says Mr. Reynolds, "It is a classic struggle between the government trying to find a way to facilitate rapid deployment of new advanced communications services" and trying to protect the radio astronomers whose work cannot be done elsewhere.

"To some extent, I'm sometimes surprised [a relatively small group of scientists] have been as successful as we have been" protecting the Quiet Zone, says Tomas Gergely, electromagnetic spectrum manager at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., which funds the observatory. The big fear is that "once you lose it, you cannot recover it," Mr. Gergely says.

Great Listeners

The science of radio astronomy dates back to the early 1930s and the work of Bell Labs physicist Karl Jansky. While investigating disturbances in trans-Atlantic telephone service, he discovered that radio waves were emanating from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Over the decades, radio astronomers have won a number of Nobel Prizes for their discoveries, including the first quasar, an extremely bright object in distant galaxies, and remnants of the Big Bang -- a cosmic explosion that many scientists believe was responsible for the creation of the universe.

Many astronomical bodies emit radio waves that travel millions of light years before reaching Earth. Since they have a much longer wavelength than visible light, radio waves are able to penetrate much of the gas and dust in space as well as planetary atmospheres. Radio telescopes can therefore obtain a much clearer picture of stars and galaxies than is possible by means of optical observation -- if there is no signal interference.

The task of preserving the Quiet Zone largely falls to Mr. Reynolds and a team of scientists at Green Bank. The radio frequency interference team spends hours every week driving around in a vehicle equipped with sensitive antennas and special gear to pinpoint local sources of interference, like a broken knot in an electric fence. They must also monitor thousands of cellphone towers and broadcast antennas in the zone to ensure they don't disrupt the telescope -- an increasingly time-consuming and difficult task.

"We're putting out fires that are about three feet high," says Wesley Sizemore, a technical specialist on the team that has been tracking down sources of interference around Green Bank for 20 years. "It is a constant battle....We don't have the luxury of adding additional staff to fight new problems, while still fighting the old battles which are not lessening."

The FCC has largely upheld the Quiet Zone and has set up a similar radio-coordination zone in Puerto Rico to protect a telescope in Arecibo. The FCC says the public benefit of the research conducted at the observatories justifies the extra burdens of the regulations. Earlier this year, the agency streamlined the process for applying for licenses within the Green Bank zone, but said its "rules have been largely successful" in protecting the observatories and facilitating the rollout of new technology.

"I don't think people are happy when they are driving through West Virginia someplace and can't get [cellphone] reception and don't understand where that's coming from," says Linda Chang, associate director of the FCC's mobility division, which reviewed the Quiet Zone rules. But "it's very important to us as an agency that Arecibo, Green Bank and other quiet zones are able to function. It's important to the public interest."

Good Neighbors

Mr. Sizemore and his colleagues have spent several months working with officials at Snowshoe Mountain, a nearby ski resort that is setting up Wi-Fi hot spots for wireless computing. The scientists studied dozens of potential locations to cause the least interference back at Green Bank. The two sides have agreed to adjust the Wi-Fi antennas and receivers so the hot spots don't reach high floors of buildings and to limit the number of users that can connect at any one spot.

"We are very restricted, but Green Bank does do everything they possibly can to develop a system that works for us and works for them," says Jim Haas, Snowshoe's vice president of resort services. "Unfortunately it costs you more money, but we understand. They were there before we were."

The scientists are also working with a family that wants to set up satellite Internet access at its mountaintop home, which sits in direct line of sight of the telescope. Direcway satellite service, part of Hughes Network Systems Inc., is the only way to get high-speed Internet access at the house, because of its remote location. (It's not connected to the power grid and is too isolated for DSL service.) At the observatory's request, the family spent hundreds of dollars to place the dish on the far side of the mountain and 700 feet below the ridge. The terrain blocks the signal from reaching Green Bank. In turn, the observatory helped the family find special cables that could carry the signal over such a long distance.

"We try to be a good neighbor," says Mr. Sizemore, who has made several trips to help the homeowner with the cabling and installation. "In a rural area like this, you never know when you'll need someone's help."

Unsound Ground

A few local businesses and politicians have tangled with the observatory over the years about the Quiet Zone restrictions. Opponents say it places unnecessary burdens on small businesses and local governments because they must operate their radio systems with reduced power, install extra antenna sites and place transmitters in less than optimal locations.

"The whole notion of this thing needs to be re-examined as to its cost on local governments and impact on the ability to deploy radio systems in a [mountainous] terrain that's very difficult to begin with," says Michael Hunter, president of RCC Consulting Inc. The Woodbridge, N.J.-based firm, which helps police and fire departments install radio networks, has petitioned the FCC unsuccessfully, most recently last year, to ease the Quiet Zone restrictions.

The radio astronomers review hundreds of applications for new wireless licenses in the Quiet Zone each year and must stay on top of regulatory issues in Washington. The scientists and their lawyer, Mr. Reynolds, regularly file legal briefs and lobby the FCC on decisions that could weaken the Quiet Zone protections. The FCC is constantly reviewing a variety of issues or new technologies that directly or indirectly affect Green Bank, such as the use of cognitive or "smart" radios, which seek out unoccupied radio frequencies and increase their output levels in rural areas. Such radios are still being tested and haven't yet received FCC approval.

"When I first got here three years ago, I might see [an FCC-proposed] rule-making that looked like it would have an impact on the Quiet Zone maybe once per quarter," says Jeff Acree, former head of Green Bank's radio frequency interference team, who recently went to work at a Defense Department weapons lab in Dahlgren, Va. "Now it seems like there is never a month that something doesn't come out, sometimes more than once a month."

Power Play

In a setback for the scientists, the FCC last month endorsed the use of broadband through power lines, or BPL, technology. Radio astronomers and others oppose the technology, which provides high-speed Internet access to homes by routing digital information over the power grid, because it generates electromagnetic interference. In essence, it turns power lines into radio antennas. The FCC decided the interference concerns could be addressed by BPL providers, and set some technical requirements for BPL gear.

Another challenge is a move by the FCC to grant licenses that cover geographic areas, rather than site-specific licenses, says Mr. Reynolds, the observatory lawyer. When scientists know the source of radio interference, they can often adjust the telescope to filter out the "noise." But it becomes more difficult and time-consuming when they don't know the location of an interfering signal, he explains.

"The Quiet Zone really does protect us," says Green Bank Director Philip Jewell. "Without it, I'm sure we wouldn't be able to do our science."

Mr. Prince is the deputy technology editor in New York for The Wall Street Journal Online.

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