Re: [RFI] Flat-screen TV emits international distress signal

["Alan Robinson" <robinsah@engr.orst.edu>]

This is an amazing, but true, story. I, too, read the story in our paper.

Alan, W4LKE, Corvallis, OR.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike D." <hrg@cifnet.com>
To: <rfi@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 5:16 AM
Subject: [RFI] Flat-screen TV emits international distress signal


> Flat-screen TV emits international distress signal
>
> Search and rescue operation leads to apartment
>
> Monday, October 18, 2004 Posted: 2315 GMT (0715 HKT)
>
> EUGENE, Oregon (Reuters) -- TV hardly gets much better than this.
>
> An Oregon man discovered earlier this month that his year-old Toshiba
> Corporation 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 October 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.
> --
>
>
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