ChasingBlueSky 0 #1 October 19, 2004 This is just strange. I have no idea how a flat screen works, anyone have a clue on how this could happen? 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._________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #2 October 19, 2004 121.5 mhz is scanned and used world-wide as a generic emergency distress frequency. You don't have to have a very sophisticated signal or even powerful signal on it to attract attention. ANYTHING on that frequency is going to draw attention; an open mic, carrier only . . . no SOS or anything like that required, just be on the frequency and people will notice. My -guess- is that the TV was simply doing its thing, being a TV, but somewhere inside a wire or number of wires was cut just the right (wrong) length and was resonating at 121.5 or a harmonic thereof. ALL modern electronics emit all kinds of RF noise . . . this was just an extreme case.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ManBird 0 #3 October 19, 2004 That's awesome. I'm going to wear pants for the rest of the day."¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChasingBlueSky 0 #4 October 19, 2004 Quote I'm going to wear pants for the rest of the day. Why bother?_________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
diablopilot 2 #5 October 19, 2004 QuoteI'm going to wear pants for the rest of the day. Put on a tin foil had instead.---------------------------------------------- You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ManBird 0 #6 October 19, 2004 Per conversation with Chachi."¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
