Green Bank Radio Restrictions: Tiny US town lives under radio-silence laws

Representative Image of a radio-quiet mountain town where wireless signals are heavily restricted (AI-generated image) In the mountains of eastern West Virginia sits Green Bank, a town of roughly 150 people where using a cell phone, running a Wi-Fi router, or operating a microwave near the town centre is not just impractical; it is against the law. Green Bank sits at the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000 square mile region spanning much of eastern West Virginia and parts of Virginia, established in 1958 to protect one of the most sensitive scientific instruments in the country, the Robert C Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, from the interference of ordinary modern wireless technology.Why this specific stretch of Appalachia went radio silentAccording to the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Quiet Zone was formally established by the Federal Communications Commission in November 1958, working alongside the federal Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, specifically to minimise harmful radio interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank and a separate United States Navy receiving facility...