Posted on 01/15/2006 8:51:01 PM PST by BenLurkin
LONDON (AFP) - A faulty digital television receiver has sparked a helicopter rescue mission after sending out a rogue distress signal, Britain's Royal Air Force has said.
The "freeview" box -- which normally allows television viewers access to dozens of digital TV and radio channels via a standard, rooftop aerial -- sent out a signal identical to that for emergency beacons at sea.
The SOS, beamed from Portsmouth, on England's south coast, was picked up by a satellite and sent to the RAF's Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Kinloss, northeast Scotland, in the early hours of January 5.
Personnel then alerted English coastguards, who sent a helicopter to investigate. The aircraft spent two fruitless hours flying over Portsmouth Harbour looking for stricken sailors until the signal was traced to dry land.
RAF spokesman Michael Mulford said: "Our Kinloss rescue centre picked up this beacon from one of five orbiting satellites listening out for these things.
"It was a 121.5 transmission -- that's the major emergency frequency, a 'Mayday'. We traced it to Portsmouth Harbour, checked and found out there were no vessels in the area or missing planes.
"We checked with (British telecoms watchdog) Ofcom and they quickly established it was coming from a household. It turned out to be a faulty 'freeview' box.
"This is very very unusual, it's a complete freak and the odds of a digibox sending out a 121.5 signal must be astronomical."
Ofcom described the incident as a "real one-off" as digital boxes should only receive and not send signals.
"The householder was happy to hand it over to our engineers who are trying to get to the bottom of the defect," a spokesman said.
Any technically inclined FReepers want to weigh in on this?
Computers, while not radio transmitting devices, give off radio signals (modems, video cards, power supply, memory cards, monitor, even the central processing unit itself), and are technically defined at FCC Part 15 (unlicensed RF devices). Any device in the United States stamped with a FCC Part 15 label is capable of being a transmitter and will cause interference to devices capable of receiving (TV's - which are Part 15 devices themselves- and tranceiver [those designed to transmit and receive] radios come to mind).
Devices mentioned above, and thousands of others without such a label are illegal.
Interesting.
There's also an oscillating crystal in the computer which regulates the computer clock that gives off a small amount of RF. The third harmonic signal of that crystal sounds like a chirping cricket.
Very Bizarre Bump
Really? Do you have detail?
Ahhhh, I think both news of the identical are phony. Did the FAA or International Civil Aviation Organization get involved in the investigation? Why both occurence only reported to have transmitted on 121.5 Mhz not the whole ATC band?
Ahhhh, I think both news are phony. This is impossible to happen. Did the FAA or International Civil Aviation Organization get involved in the investigation? Why both occurence only reported to have transmitted on 121.5 Mhz not the whole ATC band?
It's Britain, so that begs the question - is Lucas (The Prince of Darkness) in the digital TV business?
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