back to article Quiet, astronomers at work

Australia’s miners, usually famous for their shoulder-chipped sense of entitlement, have agreed to assist Australia’s bid for the international Square Kilometer Array project by not deploying new radio systems close to the proposed site. Radio silence is a key plank of the lengthy SKA selection process, which is attracting the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Difficult choice

    Australia and South Africa each have their own addvantages. South Africa would be cheaper, but Australia is arguably more politically stable, and involves fewer governments. It would be nice to inject some much needed money into South Africa, but the provision of broadband and other technological infrastructure might be easier in Australia. Decisions, decisions.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    "shoulder-chipped sense of entitlement"

    phrase of the week, IMO

  3. skellious
    Facepalm

    Gold Government?

    That's what I read, anyway... Whatever happened to using Aus/Aussie?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Gold Government?

      Fair point, changed.

    2. Captain TickTock
      Headmaster

      Isn't the standard El Reg Designation....

      ... Oz?

      need kangaroo icon

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Elmer Fudd (sotto voice)

    Be wery wery quiet! Im hunting those waskely wabbits, the ones from way back neaw the bwig baang!!

  5. s. pam Silver badge
    WTF?

    Anyone told Broadcast Australia of this development?

    As an amateur astronomy buff I'd love to see somewhere as remote a hell, ahem, Oz get it.

    BUT there's an issue!

    B.A. is a wholly owned company that provides TV and Radio across the whole of Oz, especially in the most remote regions. There's more than 580 transmission sites strategically located throughout the metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Australia.

    This means the Bogan's in Boganville get a signal, so one presumes that the local transmitter would be silenced?

    Shirley not, what would the Bogan's do?

    1. tim-e
      Trollface

      Who cares what bogans do?

      I mean, really? This is astronomy we're talking about. Surely it's more important than A Current Affair.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    there's a similar RF quiet zone in the USA

    for Pulsar Astronomy research in Green Bank, West Virginia, the link shows a nice video of a day-in-the-life of an RF noise detective.

    it's explained that the nearby Sugar Grove nsa/echelon/comint/elint listening facility also uses this quietness. 13000 square miles where cellphones are banned!

    http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/video/308-the_quiet_zone.html

    1. jphb

      Ssssh

      No power line networking!

      I bet the local radio hams are happy - until they key up the transmitter.

    2. Chris Parsons

      Please..

      "13000 square miles where cellphones are banned"

      Please can we have one, too?

  7. Stoneshop
    Joke

    "Be vewwy vewwy quiet"

    "I'm hunting an earth-shattering kaboom"

  8. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    @Difficult choice

    The wording in the reports is amusing - basically the Australian ones says "come here and you won't automatically be raped and murdered before leaving the airport" and the S. African one say "If you don't build it here you are all a bunch on Nazis" but they both manage to say so in perfect diplomatic-ese.

    1. Yes Me Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Easy choice

      The choice is easy - build SKA in both ZA and AU/NZ. That way the baseline is thousands of km longer and the resolution is vastly better. Technically and politically, this is the best of both worlds.

  9. bugalugs
    Boffin

    can't help noticing

    that Murchison is on the other side of the continent from where most of the RF noise is coming

    http://www.whereis.com/wa/murchison#session=MTE=

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Yep, the mining companies PROMISE to play fair...

    ....except if they discover you have iron / uranium ore under your telescope, in which case Our Glorious Leaders will pen up some new legislation which will pretty much fuck you over, if you'll pardon the pun.

    " Surely it's more important than A Current Affair." - No, in hell, er, Austfailia there is NOTHING more important than ACA. Oh, apart from the Footy and Masterchef.

    I expect the radio telescopes will get the silence they require; as long as there is no Footy or Masterchef, The Block, etc. on at the same time.

    "come here and you won't automatically be raped and murdered before leaving the airport" - true, we let tourists feel they are welcome for a few days, THEN we rape / murder / leave them adrift in the ocean after snorkeling trips. People who AREN'T tourists we tend to lock up in "immigration" camps.

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