Posted on 10/20/2004 9:50:08 AM PDT by El Conservador
EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) - TV hardly gets much better than this.
An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba Corp. flat-screen TV was emitting an international distress signal picked up by a satellite, leading a search and rescue operation to his apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, 70 miles south of Portland.
The signal from Chris van Rossmann's TV was routed by satellite to the Air Force Rescue Center at Langley Air Base in Virginia.
On Oct. 2, the 20 year-old college student was visited at his apartment in the small university town by a contingent of local police, civil air patrol and search and rescue personnel.
"They'd never seen signal come that strong from a home appliance," said van Rossmann. "They were quite surprised. I think we all were."
Authorities had expected to find a boat or small plane with a malfunctioning transponder, the usual culprit in such incidents, emitting the 121.5 MHz frequency of the distress signal used internationally.
Van Rossmann said he was told to keep his TV off to avoid paying a $10,000 fine for "willingly broadcasting a false distress signal."
Toshiba contacted Rossmann and offered to provide him with a replacement set for free, he said.
"I tend to find techno guys farfetched"
Go reboot your computer....its due!...lol
Reboot?..when it makes funny noises I just get another one...
"It was broadcasting on 121.5 MHz."
Interesting...I learn something every day here!
Wonder if it was a local oscillator shift, or a broadband noise emmission with enough spectral energy at that frequency to be above the satellites threshold.
Not yet. In the year 2009, IIRC.
"when it makes funny noises I just get another one..."
Let me guess...you're a DOS 5.0 sorta guy...overclocked CPU runnin at 8MHz?....lol
The latter is my guess.
Can visualize another Stephen King or John Grisham book on the horizon about this problem.
Hz is short for a car rental company, right? Do I in a prize?
That's right Pooh.
I am sure you know that you will gain equal attention transmitting on it's first harmonic (243.0Mhz).
"inadequate suppression of a harmonic"
Sounds like either a very crappy design....(Chinese knock-off by chance?) or a mediocre design coupled with an oscillator frequency shift.
Shouda used a crystal for reference.
You get a Kia...with 12 inch wheels. I think they're chrome plated though.
I know..and the radio comes with a CD/Rom drive...
Actually..its an 8-track.
You also get a tape of Joan Jetts greatest hits. Enjoy.
Listen..in my attic, I actually have a record playerer for cars..it played only 45's..came out in 64, I think..just before the 8 track..the arm was spring loaded, to hold the needle to the vinyl...everytime you hit a bump, it jumped and skipped..
Amazing....I really do learn something new on this site every day!
"When John Kerry is elected president, people like Bill Clinton will get back INTO bed and start having sex again...."
I believe that 121.5 (and 243.0) will remain as voice emergency frequencies.
As far as 500 kHz goes, yes, they stopped guarding that frequency a while ago. I believe that GMDSS still requires a watch on 2182 kHz, but I could be wrong - I know less about maritime radio than aeronautical.
Yeah, I did some googling since I read the thread and it seems that 121.5 and 243.0 Mc will still be voice. I was just wondering since those two frequencies are well ingrained in the aviation and maritime communities. I know the military also uses 282.8 Mc for voice comms in times of distress too.
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