The RFI Team at Green Bank
This is a photo of the Radio Frequency Interference Group in Green Bank, taken some years ago. Although some of the staff members have since moved on, the duties are still the same: to ensure that on-site and local sources of radio frequency interference are nulled.
The Green Bank Observatory sits inside a 13,000 square mile radio protection zone set aside by the Government. The truck here is equipped with antennas to pinpoint sources of interference around the countryside. Even a short in a heating blanket miles away from the Green Bank Telescope will be seen clearly by the GBT and ruin its astronomical observations. Microwave ovens in the buildings here get their own shielding boxes called “Faraday cages.”
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
