NRQZ, the United States Quiet Zone where mobile phones and microwaves are illegal

Nowadays it seems difficult to imagine life in a developed country without gadgets such as a mobile phone or a microwave oven.

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But that's the daily reality in an area of ​​the United States that includes parts of three states: Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. The reason for this is not because it is home to a community of Amish, the famous Anabaptist Christian group that embraces a very traditional way of life. In this case, there is a federal ban on devices that emit a certain amount of electromagnetic radiation, such as Wi-Fi hotspots, cell phones and microwave ovens. Violators can be fined $50.

This curious place is called the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ). This zone was established by the US federal government on November 19, 1958, to minimize possible harmful interference to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank and the US Navy's radio receiving facilities in Sugar Grove, West Virginia.

The Green Bank NRAO is an astronomical observatory equipped with a giant antenna, with a diameter of 100 meters. Its construction began in 1961 with an initial antenna of 90.44 meters that collapsed on November 15, 1988. The current antenna was started in 1990 and began its astronomical observations in 2000. It operates 365 days a year and is protected from radio interference by the nearby Allegheny Mountains.

The US Navy facility at Sugar Grove began construction in 1955, with a 40-foot antenna being commissioned the following year. A new 150-foot antenna was completed in 1968. The base was closed in 2016. South of this naval facility is another National Security Agency (NSA) station that was part of the ECHELON communications network, dedicated to intercepting and processing electronic telecommunications. This NSA station is still operational.

The NRQZ covers an area of ​​about 13,000 square miles (33,669 square kilometers). To give you an idea, that's larger than the entire provinces of Zaragoza and Huesca combined. Because of the NRQZ's restrictions, residents of towns in the area rely on cable and satellite communications for telephone and television service. Unlike other areas in the U.S., phone booths are still common in towns in the NRQZ.

It should be noted that the authorities take very seriously the emissions of waves that could interfere with the aforementioned facilities. The National Science Foundation of the United States (a federal agency based in Arlington, Virginia, which is in charge of the Green Bank observatory), has vehicles that patrol to detect electromagnetic radiation in the populations of the NRQZ. If you want to know more about what life is like in this area, a few weeks ago Yes Theory published an interesting video about the NRQZ:

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Main photo: greenbankobservatory.org.