Green Bank: travelling to a communications black hole

The Rough Guide to Everywhere

Welcome to series four of the Rough Guide to Everywhere! With a brand new host on board (Rough Guides editor Aimee White), we've got a fresh batch of stories, intriguing destinations and incredible guests lined up and ready to share with you. In this first episode, we take a look at a unique communications black hole in West Virginia, USA. The small town of Green Bank is home to the National Radio Quiet Zone, where scientists monitor space via huge, white telescopes. Radio waves must be kept to an absolute minimum: the smallest bit of electronics on a camera is millions of times louder than anything scientists are listening to from space. People are choosing to relocate here to avoid cellular radiation, which led us to wonder – could we travel somewhere that didn't have any wifi or GPS access? Thanks to our producers Femi Oriogun-Williams and Alannah Chance of Reduced Listening (reducedlistening.co.uk). Music contributions by Sebastian Crawshaw.