The National Quiet Zone and The Green Bank Telescope, Green Bank, West Virginia

Way back in a holler in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia is the Green Bank Radio Telescope, the largest moveable radio telescope on the planet. A strict set of rules exist for the area around it and these rules are enforced. This area is called The National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ). It is a 100 square mile rectangle of land spanning both the Virginias designated as a radio quiet zone, in which radio transmissions are heavily restricted by law to promote scientific research and the gathering of military intelligence. There is also a program called The Breakthrough Listen Project which is a search for extraterrestrial intelligence using the Green Bank telescope.

We rode late into the night through the Radio Quiet Zone. Within that 100 square mile zone, there are strict regs on using Wi-Fi, microwaves, and other types of devices using of radio waves. Once we reached the Monongahela National Forest near Buffalo Lake, we set up shop and readied ourselves for the next day's journey to the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, WV.