Imagine driving through an area you’ve never been to before, when all of a sudden your car radio and smartphone signal just drop off for 13,000 square miles. It’s not Silent Hill, it’s Green Bank, West Virginia, and thanks to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory there you’ll be hard-pressed to find WiFi, radio, or cell service there.
It may seem like a joke to say that people who live in a specific region are living in the past, but compared to a significant portion of the US that is exactly what living in Pocahontas County, West Virginia is like. There’s no LTE, no public WiFi, and only radio stations broadcasting beneath a specific frequency can be picked up by radios. Any time there is a significant broadcast point established, like a WiFi hotspot, the owners are asked to take it down to stop interfering, thanks to the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zoning Act.
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is absolutely massive, and it requires radio silence in order to do its job. The enormous, fully articulated dish takes up nearly two acres, and is as tall as the National Monument. It’s a unique piece of hardware designed for seeing impossibly small energies, and any kind of interference could ruin any data received. As a result, everything that could interfere is shut down and has been for quite some time.
While some of us may find it terrifying to live in a world without a signal, resorts have been setup in this quiet zone with one of their selling points being that there’s no cell service or interference. It’s an impressive vacation concept, but imagine living in a world where telephone booths on every corner is a requirement in order to communicate with friends and neighbors on the go.