By Stephen Smoot
The federal Colossus stands astride the mountains in the areas surrounding the Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County and the National Security Agency base in Pendleton, but no more are local governments subject to its jurisdiction simply peeping about under and among its huge legs.
The Hardy County Commission passed a resolution to join eight other local governments and related organizations to protest continued restrictions imposed on the central area of the National Radio Quiet Zone.
Commissioners recognized that the Eisenhower Administration imposed regulations do “not keep pace with the modern wireless communications tools used by first responders and our citizens.” Furthermore, it called the costs of compliance with regulatory burdens “an ever-growing unfunded mandate” reflected in the need to “spend large amounts of funding building a larger number of tower sites than would be needed absent the NRQZ restrictions.”
A number of news articles on the subject over the decades focus on the counties most heavily impacted, Pendleton, Pocahontas, and Randolph in West Virginia, as well as Highland in Virginia. Its legal scope, however, extends much farther. The northeast corner of the zone rests near Capon Bridge while the northern border roughly parallels the path of US 50 all the way to Salem in Harrison County.
The southwest corner rests about 25 miles south of Lewisburg with a boundary extending almost to Charlottesville.
Although most of this region escapes the regulations felt in the core counties, they remain subject should the federal government choose to impose them.
The NRQZ dates back to 1958 “to minimize possible harmful interference to the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia and the radio receiving facilities for the
United States Navy in Sugar Grove, West Virginia.” It continues to affect over 10,000 square
miles in West Virginia and Virginia.
Restrictions related to the NRQZ create tremendous challenges in a number of ways. Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services coordinator, recently described those restrictions as “strangling” to WBOY in Clarksburg.
NRQZ mandates also hamper both cellular and wireless internet use, which leaves the core counties difficult to develop economically.
A sampling of potential, versus actual, capabilities of certain towers in the region illustrates the
problem. Capabilities are measured in ERP (Effective Radiated Power) watts and also in what
directions the tower may broadcast. ERP is an estimate of the “combination of the power
radiated by the transmitter and the direct power capacity of the antenna in a given direction,”
according to Telcomtraining.com
A sampling of towers in Pendleton, Randolph, and Tucker counties show the level of restriction
faced. A tower serving Circleville, if the NRQZ did not exist, would transmit at the full allowed
level of 100 ERP Watts. NRQZ mandates impose a cap at .3 – or one third of one percent of a
single watt.
A tower near Seneca Rocks (the one in existence, not the one currently under construction)
would have a power capability of 24.1 normally, but may only use 1.7 ERP Watts.
Outside of the NRQZ, the broadcast radius is generally 360 degrees. The Seneca Rocks tower
can only broadcast 213.8 degrees and Circleville 227.3 degrees. Another tower near Valley
Head faces limits that restrict it to a third of normal broadcast radius.
Lower levels of allowed power and radius translate to the need for more towers, often funded by
state and federal government grants with local government matches.
The resolution passed by Hardy County suggests that “NRQZ agencies should fully fund and support filtration of unwanted signals at the head end of the NRQZ – Agency equipment and not by unfunded mandates of reductions and nulls of signal imposed upon the public safety, cellular, and satellite internet providers.”
Gillespie also shared an example of the problem with WBOY, saying “in our world today, we rely not only on digital radio systems, but data systems such as mobile data terminals and police vehicles, ambulances. In several ways, there is no workaround because everything we rely on is being limited by the Quiet Zone.”
One of the major changes since the imposition of NRQZ rules has been the emergence of almost
universal reliance on wireless services. As Gillespie describes “now, police officers have mobile
data terminals in their cruisers. Ambulances have devices that allow them to transmit EVGs and
other information to doctors at medical command bases,” allowing doctors to communicate with
ambulances to ensure the best care possible.
Additionally the federal government’s offered compromise came with an
unbearable cost for affected local governments. As Gillespie explained, “while some waivers for the VHF Band have been granted, the existing statewide interoperable system was built to operate on the UHF Band due to frequency licensing issues when the sites were being planned.”
Transferring from UHF to VHF would impose significant costs in equipment and other aspects
of the changeover.
He went on to say that the federal government should provide financial support “to secure
workable frequencies and fund our transition if a move to VHF is desired. The currently
operational UHF equipment in Pendleton and statewide by the State of West Virginia will not operate on the VHF-Band, it takes new hilltop and user devices to make the conversion.”
Also, under the NRQZ, emergency services must “lose coverage areas that both AT&T and TMobile have been willing to add to our towers,” keeping first responders almost tied to the
same technology used when John F. Kennedy was president.
For a time, Starlink seemed to offer an alternative for individuals, businesses, and emergency
responders. Gillespie described mobile Starlink units as “workarounds” in areas where radios
won’t work under NRQZ restrictions. “Now that they are creating Starlink dead zones,” says
Gillespie, “we have lost that last resort solution as well.”
The National Science Foundation, which operates the Green Bank Observatory, stated in a
release that “new techniques” will “allow communities near radio telescopes to access high-
speed internet.” Gillespie on Facebook calls the release “misleading” because “as they have told
us . . . there will be some locations where it will not work.”
He also related how one “customer had successfully used Starlink for almost two years and now
their service has become horrible.”
A strange discrepancy, or perhaps double standard, appears in the regulations governing ground-
based and air-based communications. According to the website for the Dulles International
Airport, three non-stop routes bring commercial aircraft through the restricted areas of the Quiet
Zone to and from one of the busiest airports to serve the Washington DC area.
One flight route that runs to and from the airport serving Dallas and Fort Worth takes planes very
close to both of the sensitive facilities located at Sugar Grove and Green Bank.
Other counties and related organizations that have passed resolutions include Hampshire, Barbour, Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker, Upshur, and Webster, as well as the Seneca Rocks Regional Development Authority.
