March 13, 2023 • 24 mins
Send us a textLocated in the hills of West Virginia stands the world's largest radio telescope. The Green Bank Observatory has been one of the most sought-after locations for radio research in the world. Since the 1980's many new space discoveries have been made at this facility, and it is definitely a location that needs to be on your bucket list of places to travel to. Join James and Jerry as they bring you more information of this amazing place.Support the show
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:56):
All right, welcome in everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's another edition of West Virginia Talk with James Jerry.
I'm James, and so today we're going to be on
location at Pokemontas County. Now, we've done a previous podcast
in Pokemontas County that was the Snowshoe Resort, right, this
one is a totally different type of tourist destination.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
This is a man made tourist destination.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
So we're talking about the National Radio Observatory, the green
Bank Radio Telescope, and of course green Bank is the
town that it's near.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I think it's called the Robert C.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Bird. It is telescope like everything else in our great state.
It is named after Robert C.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Bird.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Lots and lots of things there. So what exactly is
a radio telescope? So it's a giant It all loost
like the old style satellite dish, okay, and it's it
is huge. So you're talking just a few feet shorter
than the Washington Monument and way bigger than the Statue
(01:57):
of Liberty. This thing is almost five five hundred feet high.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
That's sixty percent taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, And you know Statue of Liberty is big enough
you can stand in the torch and look out, you know.
But this thing, it's four hundred and eighty five feet
The actual dish surfaces like one hundred and ten meters
by one hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
It's just this massive.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Area that picks up any kind of radio signal from space.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So what are they looking for in space?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Anything and everything they can find.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, So a lot of people will think, oh, well,
they're looking for extraterrestrial life.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They some kind of civilization out there of intelligence, and yes,
they are listening for that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
But it's more than that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
They can take sound from space and formulate these unknown
or previously unknown entities out there. You know, there's this
superbubble of hydrogen gas twenty three thousand light years away.
Twenty three thousand light years away.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
That's incredible, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, so they found this. I think it's the second
largest neutron star. It's four thousand plus light years away.
So it's not just for locating possible intelligent life in
the universe. It's to find things that already exist there
that we're unaware of until this point.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Right. And on top of that, they use those radio
frequencies to actually map the planets. They can make the
image of the planet through the radio frequencies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Right, So, how perceptive is this radio telescope? Well, your
cell phone, it uses about one watt an hour, Okay.
It can pick up the energy of something a billionth
of a billionth of a billionth of that. Wow, So
(04:01):
it's you can't even fathom how powerful this thing is.
It can pick up weaker signals than the energy of
a single snowflake. And Crown didn't even know that snowflakes
gave off energy, but they do well.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And its accuracy is to two arc seconds, meaning basically
it can resolve a quarter three miles away. Wow, that
is a very specific target.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I get this.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
This thing is so perceptive that if you took your
cell phone and turned it off, turn it off, and
then put it on the surface of Mars, your phone
would be the loudest thing in space.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Holy cow, with it turned off, with.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It turned off.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, So how would this thing even operate with all
the you know, outside stimuli of daily life of people
that live around this very sensitive instrument used for space exploration. Well,
there's some pretty strict rules and honestly, this zone is
(05:15):
way way bigger than you probably think, but it's only
enforced in a smaller area. So the radio Free Quiet
Zone is actually thirteen thousand square miles. Okay, it's about
half West Virginia, half Virginia, and just a really tiny
speck of Maryland.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
But we'll give them a little credit.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, I'll give them a little I'm thrown them in there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, we got to give Maryland, you know, some
props to so they get really strict.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
When you're at the.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Telescope and you walk thirteen miles in any direction, right,
that's when all.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
The rules are the strictest. So what kind of rules
are we looking at here?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We're talking of course, no cell phone, you sage, you're
not gonna be able to use a microwave because it's
gonna put out a frequency.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And that's nuts a microwave. You cannot use a microwave
in your own.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Home radios, you're not gonna be able to use that.
The electric doors like we're used to.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Go to the lows, those things are not because it
gives off a wireless signal. Yeah, I mean it was drones,
any kind of RC vehicles with an antenna out, anything
wireless is out, and it gets even stricter than that.
Inside this thirteen mile radius, you are not allowed to
(06:37):
have a gasoline powered vehicle.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
It has to be.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Diesel and I forgot all about that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And why is that Because spark plugs give off frequency
and it's enough to disrupt their listening process when they're working.
So diesel glow plugs they do not give off that
free So it's inside that thirteen mile radius, you're talking
twenty six miles across that you cannot have a gas
(07:05):
powered vehicle.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Now, this thing is massive. I mentioned earlier. It's one
hundred by one hundred and ten meter dish surface four
hundred and eighty five feet. It weighs over seven thousand tons.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, seventeen million pounds, right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It's insane. So the interference that people could give off. Now, listen,
don't picture a place that has no electric obviously there is.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They even got internet.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They have to have internet, but everything is connected to
a wire, so you have you can have a phone,
but it has to be an old fashioned plug in
the wall cord phone. You can't even have a cordal's phone.
If it's a landline, it's got to be the ones
with the cords on it and that kind of thing.
They are so strict on this. They actually have a
(07:54):
full time employee who has a laptop in his truck
with a micro draped over his rear view mirror, and
all he does all day is drive around looking for
any Wi Fi or any electrical interference that they're not
allowed to have, because it's not like these people live
(08:15):
there and say, oh, I didn't know. When you live
in green Bank, West Virginia, you have to sign a
form that says I will not use this, this, this,
or this, and.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You have to adhere by that. If you want the
distinction of living there, you have to follow these rules. Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You would think that people there wouldn't like that kind
of thing.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, it depends on how young.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You are, right. The younger generation is definitely not going
to be feeling the greatest about being stuck there.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay, Now I could live without it, but I would
prefer not to. But the community that are there, you know, voluntarily,
because the kids aren't. You know, you can't choose where
you live if you're a kid, your parents do. But
the people that live there, they choose this lifestyle, okay,
And and there's there's many facets of preference when it
(09:15):
comes to the people who live in this area. Some
people like the old way of living where there's no Facebook,
there's no cell phones, there's no you know, social media,
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
They they feel.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Like it takes away from personal interaction, especially with neighbors.
And it's true, it's true. You know, the people that
live across from me, I know their first names, but
I can't remember their last name. I've been living I've
lived there seventeen years. I cannot remember their last name.
The god lives to my left, I know, I know
his name, full name, but his wife's I don't remember.
(09:53):
And then the people that lived to my right, same deal.
I remember their first and last names, but I really
don't know much about them. The people live behind us
couldn't tell you who they are.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well, it's like the famous saying, you know, cell phones
have taken those who are far away and brought them near,
and taken those that are near and pushed them far away.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, well, it makes it a smaller, it makes the
world smaller, But in other ways it doesn't. Right, It
creates these divides, so you know, it's it's a way
of passing time, where back a long time ago, talking
with neighbors walking the neighborhood, that that was what you
did to pass the time. So this is what they do,
you know, this is what they want, right, you know,
(10:35):
I guess the diesel engine thing doesn't bother them. I guess,
I know diesel feels pretty expensive. But you know, reading books,
actual books, you know, a why do these people get
their news? How about a newspaper? You know, they actually
still sell newspaper that's in a paper form. So these
people live a lot like we did in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
The forties, right, forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, and I know microwaves weren't real common in the fifties,
but they were still out there. So it's just a
totally kind of not off the grid, but in today's
society it's off the grid.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then there's there's another facet of people that want
to move to this area because of the uh you
know that no cordless electronics.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And whatever it is. People who have.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's it's a recognized condition, but they don't claim that
it's a real condition. I guess I know that sounds
you know, uh, like an oxymoron.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
But this is this is what it is.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There are people in the country, in the world that
suffer from electromagnetic sensitivity. And if you've ever watched the
Breaking Bad spin off, better call Saul. You know, his
brother had this problem. He had no electric in his house.
The light got turned off. He wore a solar blanket
around his body when he was there, you know, uh,
(12:02):
just anything that had electric components to it. If his
brother came to visit, he had to leave him in
the mailbox. He couldn't come into the house with him.
Some people believe that it's made up. Some people think
it's legit. But there are people moving to this area
because they suffer from electromagnetic sensitivity and they know that
(12:23):
if they go and live there, they're not gonna have
to worry about it because it's against the law. So
if you break this law, what are your punished? What's
the consequences for this?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hey? Your good is good?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
On?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Mind? Does mine on this one?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It depends on the circumstance. The finds could be up
to several hundred thousand to a couple million dollars and fines.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I guess I could see it. I mean they're doing research,
not just locally, you know with the universities and collegure,
it's places from all over the world come here to
utilize the system. So I guess that depends on the
severity of the project they were working on.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Right, this is either a place that you wouldn't you
would never want to visit or live at, and then
for others it is a destination.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
This is what they want.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Well, they say forty thousand people a year come to visit.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, if you do the math, let me do it
real quick, it's about one hundred and twenty people a
day come out and visit.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean that might not sound like a lot, but
given the location of this Green Bank Radio telescope and
the ways of getting there, it's not real easily accessible.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's not along a major highway. There's a lot of
you know, state state routes that you have to take
to get there.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So I think some people that come to the state,
that's what they want to see is the actual country
roads they hear about in the song and things like that.
For us, we're kind of like, come on, man, it's
taken forever. But they, you know, they're there for that reason,
So it's enjoyable. Actually, motorcycle enthusiasts, you'll love these roads that.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Get to Green Bank.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So I mentioned earlier some of the things that it
is found in space.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know, along with scanning you know.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
The sky for intelligent communication that doesn't belong to Earth,
things like that. They've also found the building blocks of
life just floating around in space. They would point this
thing where they think they would find it, and they
find these complex.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Molecules like simple sugars, just floating in space.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So just the technology to me is mind blowing. It
is definitely worth your trip wherever you are to come
see this thing. Now, this used to be government funded
and now it's not. It's still ran by the government, right,
(14:56):
but it's not funded. They are funded through part yeah
Parsley or yeah, three foursts is funded or two thirds
is funded by the federal and like it used to be,
no and then the rest is funded by private where
there it be like Marshall University, West Virginia University, Virginia
Tech whoever. Yeah, because I mean, you know, it's not
(15:18):
like the people that work they are the only ones
that work there. They have scientists from all over the
world that come and use this thing.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Absolutely, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It's not exactly a public friendly place to come visit,
but as far as using it for research and everything
like that. You know, you don't have to work there
to come use this thing. So it is definitely worth having.
It's definitely worth funding.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
What's the world's largest, the largest fully steerable yea in
the world when they built it ninety five million dollars
in the early eighties.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, and that's in the early eighties. You're talking forty
years ago.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Absolutely, And you know why they built it in the
early eighties, don't you Probably because of the Cold War
or maybe no, the original one broke. Oh that's right
to collapse, collapsed, and so when it once it collapsed,
they got together and I thought maybe decided to build
a bigger one.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I thought maybe because it was early eighties, it kind
of coincided with et who's gonna say, the Reagan gorbacheaw thing.
You know, it serves many purposes.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Maybe it very well could have been used for with
that in mind at the time.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So there's got to be some amazing facts about this
Green Bank radio telescope that I'm not aware of what
do you think, what do you got?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well looking into this thing, because it is an amazing
piece of equipment. Really, the gbt SO Green Banks Telescope
right roughly runs sixty five hundred hours every year. That's
more than any other observatory out there.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, from what I was reading, they operate three hundred
and sixty two days a year, but when they operate
those days, it's twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, I mean it's just round the clock, NonStop. A
matter of fact, for every hour that is available for
them to do science testing and observations, three to four
hours have been requested by somebody to use it for
every hour used, So they're having to turn away seventy
(17:25):
five percent of those wanting to use it. Popular place, because, yes,
because it's such a unique destination and has unique capabilities
that people just don't have the capability of you're.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Talking about you're talking about from a scientific standpoint, not tourism.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right, Yes, yes, from a scientific standpoint. They can do
things they can't do anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Because it's easy to forget.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, it's a tourist destination, but it's also functional, so
you know, it has to serve its purpose aside from
people coming to visit it.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Another quick fact that I found that I thought was
very interesting. We talked about how large of a surface
area that it was two acres worth two and a
half two and a half acres. The GBT is so
smooth that now they equate it to the noise level
of two hundred and sixty microns to make that, I
guess make more sense. You're talking about the height difference
(18:24):
of five human hairs placed together. That's the biggest fluctuation
across that entire surface.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So it's pretty unified.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Five human hairs. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, how do you
even check for that. It's a pretty large surface to
have that smoothness with all those places. Incredible. But they
use twenty two and nine actuators to level the panels. Now.
The reason they have to use actuators basically all the
(18:54):
time is, of course, as they turn this thing, since
it is movable, the weight shifts. Yeah, and that causes
disproportion in the in the surface area, and these actuators
have to constantly, constantly be in motion to keep the
surface area smooth.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I see.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So because you have to I mean this this thing
can't be parallel to the ground all the time. They
have to told it right, but they got to keep
that surface flat.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I gotcha.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And one of the unique things about the Green Banks
Telescope with the Rubbersy Bird telescope is that it has
the arm like you have on your dish TVs.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And of course it's it's a place that you'd want
to see.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Absolute person absolutely, and I think one of the neat
things about this place is the fact that you can
show up and just walk around if you want. Yeah,
you can give yourself your own self tour. I wouldn't
personally do that. If I'm going there, I'm gonna want
to hear from somebody that's very knowledgeable because there's there
is so much neat things going on. You can go
(19:57):
in the front door. They have places where you do
little hands on things. They have a tour guide that
will personal tour guide that can walk you through the
building itself, and then if you feel like it, they
do offer multiple things while you're there. They give a
bus tour, which, as we said earlier, it's gonna be
(20:19):
a diesel bus, not gonna be a gas bus bus.
It's fairly cheap. I think it's only like ten bucks
if you want to be driven around the facility and
see everything they have. Because they do have multiple telescopes
on the facility. It's not like, yeah, they think those
telescopes is the only one.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I think they have eight.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, it's eight or nine one of the two.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Well, they may have eight additional ones.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
So they have multiple ones in use all the time
that they'll take you around. You can see all that.
They have a star Lab presentation where you go into
I believe it's one of their weather balloons, and of
course you've got to crawl in, but then they shoot
the galaxy up on to the canvas of the balloon.
(21:03):
Kind of gives you that neat feeling like you're almost there,
you know, it surrounds you.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I was just thinking about your vehicle. Would you
even be allowed to drive your vehicle there because you
drive an EV.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Well, be honest with you, I don't know. That'd be
something I'd have to look into. But more importantly, I
probably want an attempt to anyway, right just because it
is those country roads and I got to fill in
charge in stations are gonna be few and far between.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You probably have to drive into Harrisonburg. First, Yeah, maybe
top off.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So if you know this type of thing spikes your interest,
you want to go see this thing. Remember, you will
not have cell phone service there, right, you know it's banned.
You will see plenty of payphones. They'll still be there.
It's one of the few places I know that still
exists where they have payphones. You will not be able
(21:57):
to pick up radio stations any of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So now you did say, like I said, the overall
footprint is large. What do we say, twenty five thirty
five thousand acres? What twenty five thousand square for the
radio quid zone thirteen thousands, thirty thousand square miles. But
they do work outside of a thirteen mile radio. Yes,
they work with the locals to try to allow us
(22:21):
to try to allow as much frequency as possible without
interfering with the satellite.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, because you still have to have ems, you still
have to have police that kind of thing fire. So
once again you want to go see this place. It's
the National Radio Observatory, the Robert C. Bird Radio Telescope
in green Bank, West Virginia. And you know the irony
of this place is the technology there is the most
(22:47):
advanced in the world, but no one.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Has a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, so very ironic. Much like many places in our state,
there's a lot of irony. So we hope if you
enjoyed this episode the National Radio Observatory, check us out
on Facebook, send us a message.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Check out our post, or send us an email.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Absolutely, we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes, it is West Virginia Talk at yahoo dot com.
Thanks for listening everyone. Once again, I'm James, I'm Jerry.
This has been West Virginia Talk at.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Jay and j production
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Me
All right, welcome in everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It's another edition of West Virginia Talk with James Jerry.
I'm James, and so today we're going to be on
location at Pokemontas County. Now, we've done a previous podcast
in Pokemontas County that was the Snowshoe Resort, right, this
one is a totally different type of tourist destination.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
This is a man made tourist destination.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
So we're talking about the National Radio Observatory, the green
Bank Radio Telescope, and of course green Bank is the
town that it's near.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I think it's called the Robert C.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Bird. It is telescope like everything else in our great state.
It is named after Robert C.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Bird.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Lots and lots of things there. So what exactly is
a radio telescope? So it's a giant It all loost
like the old style satellite dish, okay, and it's it
is huge. So you're talking just a few feet shorter
than the Washington Monument and way bigger than the Statue
(01:57):
of Liberty. This thing is almost five five hundred feet high.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
That's sixty percent taller than the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, And you know Statue of Liberty is big enough
you can stand in the torch and look out, you know.
But this thing, it's four hundred and eighty five feet
The actual dish surfaces like one hundred and ten meters
by one hundred meters.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
It's just this massive.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Area that picks up any kind of radio signal from space.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
So what are they looking for in space?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Anything and everything they can find.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, So a lot of people will think, oh, well,
they're looking for extraterrestrial life.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That is true.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
They some kind of civilization out there of intelligence, and yes,
they are listening for that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
But it's more than that.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
They can take sound from space and formulate these unknown
or previously unknown entities out there. You know, there's this
superbubble of hydrogen gas twenty three thousand light years away.
Twenty three thousand light years away.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
That's incredible, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, so they found this. I think it's the second
largest neutron star. It's four thousand plus light years away.
So it's not just for locating possible intelligent life in
the universe. It's to find things that already exist there
that we're unaware of until this point.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Right. And on top of that, they use those radio
frequencies to actually map the planets. They can make the
image of the planet through the radio frequencies.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Right, So, how perceptive is this radio telescope? Well, your
cell phone, it uses about one watt an hour, Okay.
It can pick up the energy of something a billionth
of a billionth of a billionth of that. Wow, So
(04:01):
it's you can't even fathom how powerful this thing is.
It can pick up weaker signals than the energy of
a single snowflake. And Crown didn't even know that snowflakes
gave off energy, but they do well.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And its accuracy is to two arc seconds, meaning basically
it can resolve a quarter three miles away. Wow, that
is a very specific target.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
I get this.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
This thing is so perceptive that if you took your
cell phone and turned it off, turn it off, and
then put it on the surface of Mars, your phone
would be the loudest thing in space.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Holy cow, with it turned off, with.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
It turned off.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, So how would this thing even operate with all
the you know, outside stimuli of daily life of people
that live around this very sensitive instrument used for space exploration. Well,
there's some pretty strict rules and honestly, this zone is
(05:15):
way way bigger than you probably think, but it's only
enforced in a smaller area. So the radio Free Quiet
Zone is actually thirteen thousand square miles. Okay, it's about
half West Virginia, half Virginia, and just a really tiny
speck of Maryland.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
But we'll give them a little credit.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, I'll give them a little I'm thrown them in there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, we got to give Maryland, you know, some
props to so they get really strict.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
When you're at the.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Telescope and you walk thirteen miles in any direction, right,
that's when all.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
The rules are the strictest. So what kind of rules
are we looking at here?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
We're talking of course, no cell phone, you sage, you're
not gonna be able to use a microwave because it's
gonna put out a frequency.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And that's nuts a microwave. You cannot use a microwave
in your own.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Home radios, you're not gonna be able to use that.
The electric doors like we're used to.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Go to the lows, those things are not because it
gives off a wireless signal. Yeah, I mean it was drones,
any kind of RC vehicles with an antenna out, anything
wireless is out, and it gets even stricter than that.
Inside this thirteen mile radius, you are not allowed to
(06:37):
have a gasoline powered vehicle.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
It has to be.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Diesel and I forgot all about that.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And why is that Because spark plugs give off frequency
and it's enough to disrupt their listening process when they're working.
So diesel glow plugs they do not give off that
free So it's inside that thirteen mile radius, you're talking
twenty six miles across that you cannot have a gas
(07:05):
powered vehicle.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Now, this thing is massive. I mentioned earlier. It's one
hundred by one hundred and ten meter dish surface four
hundred and eighty five feet. It weighs over seven thousand tons.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, seventeen million pounds, right.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It's insane. So the interference that people could give off. Now, listen,
don't picture a place that has no electric obviously there is.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
They even got internet.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They have to have internet, but everything is connected to
a wire, so you have you can have a phone,
but it has to be an old fashioned plug in
the wall cord phone. You can't even have a cordal's phone.
If it's a landline, it's got to be the ones
with the cords on it and that kind of thing.
They are so strict on this. They actually have a
(07:54):
full time employee who has a laptop in his truck
with a micro draped over his rear view mirror, and
all he does all day is drive around looking for
any Wi Fi or any electrical interference that they're not
allowed to have, because it's not like these people live
(08:15):
there and say, oh, I didn't know. When you live
in green Bank, West Virginia, you have to sign a
form that says I will not use this, this, this,
or this, and.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You have to adhere by that. If you want the
distinction of living there, you have to follow these rules. Okay, So.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
You would think that people there wouldn't like that kind
of thing.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, it depends on how young.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You are, right. The younger generation is definitely not going
to be feeling the greatest about being stuck there.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
No, I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Okay, Now I could live without it, but I would
prefer not to. But the community that are there, you know, voluntarily,
because the kids aren't. You know, you can't choose where
you live if you're a kid, your parents do. But
the people that live there, they choose this lifestyle, okay,
And and there's there's many facets of preference when it
(09:15):
comes to the people who live in this area. Some
people like the old way of living where there's no Facebook,
there's no cell phones, there's no you know, social media,
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
They they feel.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Like it takes away from personal interaction, especially with neighbors.
And it's true, it's true. You know, the people that
live across from me, I know their first names, but
I can't remember their last name. I've been living I've
lived there seventeen years. I cannot remember their last name.
The god lives to my left, I know, I know
his name, full name, but his wife's I don't remember.
(09:53):
And then the people that lived to my right, same deal.
I remember their first and last names, but I really
don't know much about them. The people live behind us
couldn't tell you who they are.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Well, it's like the famous saying, you know, cell phones
have taken those who are far away and brought them near,
and taken those that are near and pushed them far away.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, well, it makes it a smaller, it makes the
world smaller, But in other ways it doesn't. Right, It
creates these divides, so you know, it's it's a way
of passing time, where back a long time ago, talking
with neighbors walking the neighborhood, that that was what you
did to pass the time. So this is what they do,
you know, this is what they want, right, you know,
(10:35):
I guess the diesel engine thing doesn't bother them. I guess,
I know diesel feels pretty expensive. But you know, reading books,
actual books, you know, a why do these people get
their news? How about a newspaper? You know, they actually
still sell newspaper that's in a paper form. So these
people live a lot like we did in.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
The forties, right, forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, and I know microwaves weren't real common in the fifties,
but they were still out there. So it's just a
totally kind of not off the grid, but in today's
society it's off the grid.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And then there's there's another facet of people that want
to move to this area because of the uh you
know that no cordless electronics.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And whatever it is. People who have.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's it's a recognized condition, but they don't claim that
it's a real condition. I guess I know that sounds
you know, uh, like an oxymoron.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
But this is this is what it is.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
There are people in the country, in the world that
suffer from electromagnetic sensitivity. And if you've ever watched the
Breaking Bad spin off, better call Saul. You know, his
brother had this problem. He had no electric in his house.
The light got turned off. He wore a solar blanket
around his body when he was there, you know, uh,
(12:02):
just anything that had electric components to it. If his
brother came to visit, he had to leave him in
the mailbox. He couldn't come into the house with him.
Some people believe that it's made up. Some people think
it's legit. But there are people moving to this area
because they suffer from electromagnetic sensitivity and they know that
(12:23):
if they go and live there, they're not gonna have
to worry about it because it's against the law. So
if you break this law, what are your punished? What's
the consequences for this?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hey? Your good is good?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
On?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Mind? Does mine on this one?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
It depends on the circumstance. The finds could be up
to several hundred thousand to a couple million dollars and fines.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I guess I could see it. I mean they're doing research,
not just locally, you know with the universities and collegure,
it's places from all over the world come here to
utilize the system. So I guess that depends on the
severity of the project they were working on.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Right, this is either a place that you wouldn't you
would never want to visit or live at, and then
for others it is a destination.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
This is what they want.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Well, they say forty thousand people a year come to visit.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, if you do the math, let me do it
real quick, it's about one hundred and twenty people a
day come out and visit.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Now.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
I mean that might not sound like a lot, but
given the location of this Green Bank Radio telescope and
the ways of getting there, it's not real easily accessible.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
It's not along a major highway. There's a lot of
you know, state state routes that you have to take
to get there.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So I think some people that come to the state,
that's what they want to see is the actual country
roads they hear about in the song and things like that.
For us, we're kind of like, come on, man, it's
taken forever. But they, you know, they're there for that reason,
So it's enjoyable. Actually, motorcycle enthusiasts, you'll love these roads that.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Get to Green Bank.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
So I mentioned earlier some of the things that it
is found in space.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know, along with scanning you know.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
The sky for intelligent communication that doesn't belong to Earth,
things like that. They've also found the building blocks of
life just floating around in space. They would point this
thing where they think they would find it, and they
find these complex.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Molecules like simple sugars, just floating in space.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
So just the technology to me is mind blowing. It
is definitely worth your trip wherever you are to come
see this thing. Now, this used to be government funded
and now it's not. It's still ran by the government, right,
(14:56):
but it's not funded. They are funded through part yeah
Parsley or yeah, three foursts is funded or two thirds
is funded by the federal and like it used to be,
no and then the rest is funded by private where
there it be like Marshall University, West Virginia University, Virginia
Tech whoever. Yeah, because I mean, you know, it's not
(15:18):
like the people that work they are the only ones
that work there. They have scientists from all over the
world that come and use this thing.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Absolutely, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It's not exactly a public friendly place to come visit,
but as far as using it for research and everything
like that. You know, you don't have to work there
to come use this thing. So it is definitely worth having.
It's definitely worth funding.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
What's the world's largest, the largest fully steerable yea in
the world when they built it ninety five million dollars
in the early eighties.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah, and that's in the early eighties. You're talking forty
years ago.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Absolutely, And you know why they built it in the
early eighties, don't you Probably because of the Cold War
or maybe no, the original one broke. Oh that's right
to collapse, collapsed, and so when it once it collapsed,
they got together and I thought maybe decided to build
a bigger one.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I thought maybe because it was early eighties, it kind
of coincided with et who's gonna say, the Reagan gorbacheaw thing.
You know, it serves many purposes.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Maybe it very well could have been used for with
that in mind at the time.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So there's got to be some amazing facts about this
Green Bank radio telescope that I'm not aware of what
do you think, what do you got?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well looking into this thing, because it is an amazing
piece of equipment. Really, the gbt SO Green Banks Telescope
right roughly runs sixty five hundred hours every year. That's
more than any other observatory out there.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, from what I was reading, they operate three hundred
and sixty two days a year, but when they operate
those days, it's twenty four to seven.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, I mean it's just round the clock, NonStop. A
matter of fact, for every hour that is available for
them to do science testing and observations, three to four
hours have been requested by somebody to use it for
every hour used, So they're having to turn away seventy
(17:25):
five percent of those wanting to use it. Popular place, because, yes,
because it's such a unique destination and has unique capabilities
that people just don't have the capability of you're.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Talking about you're talking about from a scientific standpoint, not tourism.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Right, Yes, yes, from a scientific standpoint. They can do
things they can't do anywhere else in the world.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Because it's easy to forget.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah, it's a tourist destination, but it's also functional, so
you know, it has to serve its purpose aside from
people coming to visit it.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Another quick fact that I found that I thought was
very interesting. We talked about how large of a surface
area that it was two acres worth two and a
half two and a half acres. The GBT is so
smooth that now they equate it to the noise level
of two hundred and sixty microns to make that, I
guess make more sense. You're talking about the height difference
(18:24):
of five human hairs placed together. That's the biggest fluctuation
across that entire surface.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So it's pretty unified.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Five human hairs. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah, how do you
even check for that. It's a pretty large surface to
have that smoothness with all those places. Incredible. But they
use twenty two and nine actuators to level the panels. Now.
The reason they have to use actuators basically all the
(18:54):
time is, of course, as they turn this thing, since
it is movable, the weight shifts. Yeah, and that causes
disproportion in the in the surface area, and these actuators
have to constantly, constantly be in motion to keep the
surface area smooth.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
I see.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So because you have to I mean this this thing
can't be parallel to the ground all the time. They
have to told it right, but they got to keep
that surface flat.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
I gotcha.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And one of the unique things about the Green Banks
Telescope with the Rubbersy Bird telescope is that it has
the arm like you have on your dish TVs.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And of course it's it's a place that you'd want
to see.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Absolute person absolutely, and I think one of the neat
things about this place is the fact that you can
show up and just walk around if you want. Yeah,
you can give yourself your own self tour. I wouldn't
personally do that. If I'm going there, I'm gonna want
to hear from somebody that's very knowledgeable because there's there
is so much neat things going on. You can go
(19:57):
in the front door. They have places where you do
little hands on things. They have a tour guide that
will personal tour guide that can walk you through the
building itself, and then if you feel like it, they
do offer multiple things while you're there. They give a
bus tour, which, as we said earlier, it's gonna be
(20:19):
a diesel bus, not gonna be a gas bus bus.
It's fairly cheap. I think it's only like ten bucks
if you want to be driven around the facility and
see everything they have. Because they do have multiple telescopes
on the facility. It's not like, yeah, they think those
telescopes is the only one.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I think they have eight.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, it's eight or nine one of the two.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Well, they may have eight additional ones.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
So they have multiple ones in use all the time
that they'll take you around. You can see all that.
They have a star Lab presentation where you go into
I believe it's one of their weather balloons, and of
course you've got to crawl in, but then they shoot
the galaxy up on to the canvas of the balloon.
(21:03):
Kind of gives you that neat feeling like you're almost there,
you know, it surrounds you.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
And I was just thinking about your vehicle. Would you
even be allowed to drive your vehicle there because you
drive an EV.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Well, be honest with you, I don't know. That'd be
something I'd have to look into. But more importantly, I
probably want an attempt to anyway, right just because it
is those country roads and I got to fill in
charge in stations are gonna be few and far between.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
You probably have to drive into Harrisonburg. First, Yeah, maybe
top off.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So if you know this type of thing spikes your interest,
you want to go see this thing. Remember, you will
not have cell phone service there, right, you know it's banned.
You will see plenty of payphones. They'll still be there.
It's one of the few places I know that still
exists where they have payphones. You will not be able
(21:57):
to pick up radio stations any of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So now you did say, like I said, the overall
footprint is large. What do we say, twenty five thirty
five thousand acres? What twenty five thousand square for the
radio quid zone thirteen thousands, thirty thousand square miles. But
they do work outside of a thirteen mile radio. Yes,
they work with the locals to try to allow us
(22:21):
to try to allow as much frequency as possible without
interfering with the satellite.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, because you still have to have ems, you still
have to have police that kind of thing fire. So
once again you want to go see this place. It's
the National Radio Observatory, the Robert C. Bird Radio Telescope
in green Bank, West Virginia. And you know the irony
of this place is the technology there is the most
(22:47):
advanced in the world, but no one.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Has a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, so very ironic. Much like many places in our state,
there's a lot of irony. So we hope if you
enjoyed this episode the National Radio Observatory, check us out
on Facebook, send us a message.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Check out our post, or send us an email.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Absolutely, we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yes, it is West Virginia Talk at yahoo dot com.
Thanks for listening everyone. Once again, I'm James, I'm Jerry.
This has been West Virginia Talk at.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Jay and j production
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Me
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