By Stephen Smoot
Last week, much of the central deep and upper South experienced unprecedented flooding from a slow moving former hurricane that cut off entire cities and counties from communication. As emergency services come to grips with the scope of the disaster there, concerns continue to mount in regions hit hard by a similar type of storm nearly four decades ago.
The National Radio Quiet Zone covers significant parts of Pendleton and Pocahontas counties in West Virginia, while also having significant effects on communications in parts of Randolph and Tucker counties. Large parts of Highland County, Virginia, also labor under its mandates.
A map of the zone in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration handbook, however, shows a much broader defined area of inclusion for the National Radio Quiet Zone. It shows a square region with a northwest point at Salem in Harrison County, the northeast corner near Dunmore Ridge in Hampshire County, the southwest corner in Patton on the border of Greenbrier and Mercer counties, and the southeast corner near Buckingham, Virginia east of Lynchburg, Virginia.
The most highly affected areas, however, flank the Green Bank National Observatory in Pocahontas County and the National Security Agency station in Pendleton County.
According to Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services coordinator, Barbour, Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph, Tucker, Upshur, and Webster counties saw their county commissions pass resolutions calling for reform and/or assistance to mitigate the effects of NRQZ related regulations. He added that “additionally, the Seneca Rocks Development Authority, representing economic development interests in Grant and Pendleton counties, has issued a resolution, indicating that this issue is of regional significance.”
“Restrictions,” Gillespie explained, “inhibit the use of essential communication systems, including modern two-way radio networks, cellular and wireless data systems, and satellite broadband services such as Starlink.”
Starlink recently dialed back its capabilities to current customers in some parts of the NRQZ. The Biden Administration has put increasing pressure on Starlink and other Elon Musk owned entities in recent years on a wide variety of fronts.
Although the federal government offered compromise in one key area, it came with an unbearable cost for Pendleton County. 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.”
The most recent resolution came from the Pocahontas County Commission. Much of the opening statements in that resolution contain statements reflecting a diplomatic approach to the problem. It reads that “the County Commission acknowledges and appreciates Green Bank Observatory for their part in scientific and technologic advances . . . and positive attention brought to the county.”
The county commission went on to emphasize the importance of modern communications in emergency response, stating that the federal government has a responsibility to fund the county’s ability to meet the mandate and also use the most advanced communications possible.
Failing that, “the Pocahontas County Commission fully supports total waivers of any NRQZ restrictions imposed on the Public Safety Radio Spectrum by the NRQZ.”
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, Texas, takes planes very close to both of the sensitive facilities located at Sugar Grove and Green Bank.
