Optical astronomy had a great thing going in the days when most light pollution came from low-pressure sodium vapor lamps—that's comparatively easy to filter out. Radio astronomy isn't so lucky.
Yea- and Wifi can be had a lot closer than I expected. It’s one of my favorite places to visit. I love how the big dish is just kinda stalking the barns.
"The Adventure Zone" role-playing podcast set one of their seasons inside this zone, which gave an elegant narrative reason to remove cell-phones from the story.
I was at the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico a couple years ago. It had a similar "turn off your phones and radios" sign and radio silence perimeter. They have tourists and a gift shop, so it's not as locked down as a military base.
The National Radio Quiet Zone is not locked down either. There is a public road through Greenbank and the observatory there a very cool visitor center. I can recommend both the coffee and the tours they offer there. The office space for the observatory next door has a locked door, but it is not "as locked down as a military base" by a long shot.
The NRQZ is definitely not locked down, and it's lot bigger than Greenbank too. It's not a super populated region, but it's 13,000 square miles. It is larger than 9 states.
Is is just a sign or is there a formal quiet area enforced by law? I couldn't find anything designating a formal restriction on radio, but I'd be interested in reading about it if there is one. As far as I am aware, the NRQZ is unique in the US.
Back in November I went to Green Bank. 'Outside the wire' (their fence) there really isn't much other than a few signs. Inside the fence they allow nothing but diesel vehicles, phones had to be shut off or if they couldn't they had a faraday cage for them. They do have a truck that hunts down stray RF signals. They shared w/ us that they have found broken electric tooth brushes (which they replaced for free) among the normal stuff that puts out RF. So while it's not RF 'free' (there's cell signal outside the fence area), it is RF reduced. They know of all the signals in the area and filter them out of the results. Really neat place to visit.
I do also recall an episode of their TV show Click (technology based news show) that covered some form of enforcement that saw a patrol that would monitor and locate (via triangulation) and radio interference - be that leaky microwaves etc.
Electric vehicles emit large amounts of RF from their inverter circuits. If you ever have the chance, try turning on an AM radio while driving in one - you’ll get a very loud and surreal serenade.
Tom Scott went there a few years ago - and in the outer part of the zone, there really isn't a problem having your phone & WiFi turned on. I imagine if you're causing interference, their radio-direction-finding team will pay you a visit. But generally it seems to be much like anywhere else in the US.
This area is how I realized I must have an Intel modem in my iPhone: after being on airplane mode as I traversed it, I couldn’t pick up any reception for some time after.
I assumed at first it was because I was still in a mountainous area, but finally realized the modem was never going to reconnect, and had to power cycle my phone.
It depends on where in the silence zone you are (I live in the NRSZ). There are increasingly strict zones the closer you get to the Observatory. Unless you were flying your drone close to the observatory itself, it's never been a problem. Folks in town have WiFi as well. Although the authorities can shut it down if they needed to, they're generally hands off unless it's a problem.
The article doesn't mention it, but there's many people who moved to this rectangle because they are (believe or actually are) hypersensitive to radio transmissions.
