Located in the mountains of West Virginia, surrounded by farmland and national forests, sits an enormous dish measuring more than two acres in size. The observatory, set up in a Green Bank valley nearly 50 years ago, houses a giant 100-meter, 16 million pound white dish which serves as the antenna for a powerful telescope used by astronomers to collect faint radio waves emitted by distant stars and galaxies.
     To protect the observatory's electronic signals, the Federal Communications Commission created a National Radio Quiet Zone. The 50 year old quiet zone restricts radio transmissions in the area, covering 13,000 square miles in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. state law gives the observatory even more authority, restricting all signals within 10 miles of the telescope. This difficult task attempts to eliminate cellphone, radio and television signals. At the observatory's grounds, television lines are buried, computer rooms are shielded, and workers drive diesel cars without an interfering ignition system. Wireless technologies, such as cellphones and Wi-Fi computer links, are creating an ever-increasing problem in the quiet zone.
     This unique farm scene catches a glimpse of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, built to replace a previous 300 foot paraboloid telescope. Once mistaken in the 50s for a mysterious looking object from the Twilight Zone, these Green Bank dishes no longer surprises modern sightseers. This farm poses no problems in the quiet zone and is running almost as it had a half century ago. This farm in the zone, is one of West Virginia's 21,000 farms that contribute nearly a half-billion dollars to the state's economy each year.