Subj : Newsline Part 3
To   : ALL USERS
From : DARYL STOUT
Date : Sat Nov 14 2015 12:28 pm

KICKER: RERUNS IN SPACE OR..RADIO REDUX?

It seems that old jokes, unlike radio waves, have an uncanny ability to
bounce back and return to earth. Take the case of a news prank the BBC
staged a few years ago. A fictonal radio astronomer at an observatory in
Puerto Rico happened upon some old broadcast signals floating out in
space, while attempting to track extra-terrestrial signals from his lab.
Or so the story goes.

He then identified those surprise signals as the transmissions from old
TV broadcasts - identifying them even to the point that he could name
the very TV shows the signals were carrying. Well, the story, like the
signals, got very decent air play for the April Fool's Day prank the
British broadcasters pulled a couple of years ago. The fictional
astronomer, a Dr. Venn, who was not even given a first name by the
creator of this story, had theorized at the time that the signals likely
bounced off some far-away asteroid cloud, and thus returned to earth.
Some of the TV shows he identified were said to be 50 years old - or
more.

Well, it didn't take 50 years, but something has apparently bounced back
to earth for real - and it's the old story about these ancient reruns.
Twitter feeds, and other forms of social media, have come alive with this
bizarre tale that old radio waves don't die, and don't even fade away.
All of which makes for very poor science - but a very good joke - even
if it's not April Fool's.

Perhaps, as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, we might just consider
it someone else's old turkey.

** 

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs; AMSAT; the ARRL; the BBC; CQ Magazine; The 5MHz
Newsletter; Hap Holly and the Rain Report; IEEE, The Irish Radio
Transmitter Society; the Ohio-Penn DX Newsletter; Radio Amateurs of
Canada; The South African Radio League; Southgate Amateur Radio News;
TWiT TV; VERON, and you our listeners, that's all from the Amateur Radio
Newsline. Our email address is newsline@arnewsline.org. More information
is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's only official website located
at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us, or support us, at Amateur
Radio Newsline, 28197 Robin Avenue, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.

For now, with Caryn Eve Murray, KD2GUT, at the news desk in New York, and
our news team worldwide, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, in Picayune,
Mississippi, saying 73, and as always, we thank you for listening.

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
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