GREEN BANK — The U.S. National Science Foundation Green Bank Observatory has announced it will be allowing the use of Wi-Fi in the “Quiet Zone” for Green Bank Elementary and Middle School and local residents.

NSF GBO officials said the school and members of the community will be permitted to use Wi-Fi routers that operate at 2.4GHz, one of the easiest and most accessible wavelengths for routers to operate at.

The Pocahontas County school system has five schools, with GBEMS, which sits next to the NSF Green Bank Telescope, being the only school without Wi-Fi.

“This is a big, positive change for us,” GBEMS Principal Melissa Jordan said in a release from the NSF GBO. “This conversation has been going on for a few years, and it’s finally happening. Our students now have the same equal opportunities as the others in the county. We’re really excited to see the ways that this can positively impact student achievement.”

According to the NSF GBO, the Observatory exists within two “Quiet Zones” that protect its scientific research. The first “Quiet Zone” is the 13,000-square mile National Radio Quiet Zone that exists across large areas of West Virginia and Virginia.

The second, much smaller “Quiet Zone” is the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zone, which provides guidelines for a 10-mile radius surrounding the Observatory. Until now, the WVRAZ has prohibited the use of devices that create emissions, such as Wi-Fi routers, in the area.

“When these Quiet Zones were created in the late 1950s by the Federal Communications Commission and the state of West Virginia, officials could not have predicted the technology using radio wavelengths that are almost an essential part of our daily lives,” NSF GBO Director Anthony Remijan said in the release. “Today, we’re trying to balance our scientific operations with the reality of a world with Wi-Fi.”

The WVRAZ is enforced primarily through voluntary compliance, the NSF GBO explains, with residents who are aware of the restrictions following them; however, this has not prevented some residents and business owners from installing and using Wi-Fi routers.

Monitoring and enforcement of the Quiet Zones has been limited by the Observatory’s operating budgets and staff availability. The NSF GBO states it can also be difficult to pinpoint specific sources of interference, with reports of over 100 signals detected in the area surrounding the Observatory. 

When observing, the Green Bank Telescope operates 24 hours a day. The radio frequencies that Wi-Fi use to connect with phones, tablets and other devices are the same type of wavelengths emitted by objects in space. When Wi-Fi is on at the same time, these frequencies overlap and hide what scientists are looking for.

While scientists observing in S-band (2-4 GHz) with the telescope are the most affected by Wi-Fi operating at 2.4 GHz, Observatory engineers and scientists say the best compromise for the “benefit of the local community” is to use that specific wavelength anyway, as it has already been impacted by the unapproved use of many Wi-Fi routers in the area.

“Many people who were doing the right thing by not using Wi-Fi were left without access, while others who were illegally using routers did whatever they wanted,” Remijan said. “Now, the Observatory is offering guidance that benefits everyone and helps us better manage the situation.”

The NSF GBO hopes ithe new guidelines will encourage Green Bank locals to make the switch and adjust their router settings to prevent overlap with other frequencies.