GREENBANK, W.Va. — Residents and students around the Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County are finally allowed to use a form of WIFI after years of research and consultation with the facility’s scientists and staff.
The center earlier this year agreed to allow the use of popular WIFI routers sold in most box stores if they were programed to operate at the frequency 2.4 GHz.
“This is a place where we research and look at things at that radio frequency, but there’s already a lot of interference that comes up at that frequency and since that frequency is already kind of messy, let’s go ahead and let the school use it,” said Jill Malusky, Public Information Manager for the Observatory.
The decision was made and announced in June of this year and the Pocahontas County School Board was given the green light to install the approved WIFI to help enhance student education and opportunities at Green Bank Elementary/Middle School. Since there are so few residents and businesses in the “quiet zone”, the NRAO has also extended the same authorization to residents and businesses if they set their routers to 2.4 ghz. Malusky said they know there are already people using WIFI and frequencies which interfere with their work, but they haven’t specifically tracked them down. She and the managers hoped this compromise would help eliminate at least some of the tension which comes with the interference issues.
The observatory has instructions for anyone wanting to bring their router into compliance with the 2.4 ghz setting. The quiet zone is in a 10 mile radius around the facility. Outside of that zone, WIFI has already been implemented and used.
Malusky noted this allowance has nothing to do with other conflicts which have cropped up in recent years. One of the latest concerns is the expense 911 centers are forced to endure for communications equipment which is cumbersome, expensive, and not as reliable to preserve the integrity of the quiet zone.