On: United States National Radio Quiet Zone

[leetrout]

Fun fact: they only drive diesels around the antenna dish because spark plugs cause interference.

[wtallis → leetrout]

Not just interference, but really annoyingly broad-band interference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter

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.

[dillonmckay → leetrout]

Also, microwave ovens require an additional housing to block interference.

Interestingly, driving through the area, I could still pickup a decent amount of FM radio stations, not very well, but definitely not static.

[leetrout → dillonmckay]

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.