ATS: Television's Distress Signal Picked up by Satellite

A college student in Corvallis, Oregon had an unexpected visit from the Civil Air Patrol who informed him that his television was broadcasting the international distress signal. On October 2, 2004 his Toshiba flat screen television began broadcasting on the 121.5 MHz distress frequency, and it was picked up by a satellite that relayed the information to Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Authorities were surprised to find that the signal was coming from his television set, and asked him to leave it off or face a $10,000 per day fine.


Although amusing, this story brings up issues that are them making of the best conspiracy theories. This television accidentally transmitted the distress signal, so what else are they capable of doing? While we are on this subject, how much do we know about all of the electronic items that we buy and bring home? Since most consumers never crack open their television sets, microwaves, or toasters, I suppose it's possible that any number of things could be placed into these devices and we would never be the wiser.

Of course the real conspiracy in this whole matter is that his warranty had expired 16 days before the problem began. Luckily for him, Toshiba volunteered to provide him with a replacement television for his troubles.

[edit on 19-10-2004 by dbates]

That's because of all the election ads. The TV has had enough and want to be rescued.

I have a Toshiba Rear Projection Cimama Series HDTV. Last weekend I went to a Best Buy store to get some information about HD (high definition) receivers. The sales person said that they were just informed by the manager that they could not sell the newer models of Toshiba Rear Projection TV's because of a problem with the HD tuners.

I called Toshiba USA customer support yesterday and told them of my experience at Best Buy. They denied knowing anything about the reported problem.



Toshiba Customer Service Link:
www.tacp.toshiba.com...

Originally posted by John bull 1
That's because of all the election ads. The TV has had enough and want to be rescued.

That's exactly what I was thinking, but wasn't free to say in the article itself. You could cross-post this as humor in that light.

actually the distress signal was valid... you should have seen the things he was doing to that poor TV... just ghastly... j/k

I have been told that many electronic items (mainly TVs and cable boxes)contain odd unknown circuits (from a hobby electrician) so maybe these items lay silent until they are "awakened". Perhaps this was just a defective unit that broadcasted on a wrong frequency?
big bro can make mistakes too... he is juszzzzzzaaaaaapppppppppp!

I agree. I bet that as the TV started to break down a little, some damage somewhere just caused the leak of a frequency of 121.5 randomly. That's what the compliance regulations are all about. Those standards exist so that background frequency radiation wouldn't interfere with communications equipment of the authorities, emergency services, and airplanes.

This SOS freq emmission was a big problem as it was probably acting as a hot mic, not allowing someone who really needed to use the freq the access.

I have the same TV in that picture above...luckily no one's come knocking on my door yet...It's a great TV

That is an interesting question you've posed dbates...exactly what else are these things putting out that we don't know of...

Recently, many large corporate companies with "ginormous" inventories are using a very small FM micro-chip transmiter that serves as their inventory control...it replies back to the transmitter with it's serial number so people will know when X left the shelf...Although these tiny little suckers are only able to reply when the scanner is nearby, it could serve as a tracking device for something as small as a pack of bubble gum...

[edit on 10/19/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

A televsion screen, at least a conventional one, is a photosensitive medium. In laymans terms, it not only can be used to project a picture outwards, it can also "take" pictures. As wild as this sounds it's true. To proove it, next time it has been dark in the room where your television set is, take a lighter or a flahs light and flash it very close to the glass of a televsion set and then you will see a residual image impreinted on the television. Given the fact that a television is also apprently able to broadcast signals, then that makes my freaking skin crawl.

Originally posted by twitchy
A televsion screen, at least a conventional one, is a photosensitive medium. In laymans terms, it not only can be used to project a picture outwards, it can also "take" pictures. As wild as this sounds it's true. To proove it, next time it has been dark in the room where your television set is, take a lighter or a flahs light and flash it very close to the glass of a televsion set and then you will see a residual image impreinted on the television. Given the fact that a television is also apprently able to broadcast signals, then that makes my freaking skin crawl.

Holy crap...

KILL YOUR TELEVISION!!!!



NOW!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by John bull 1
That's because of all the election ads. The TV has had enough and want to be rescued.

Oh my gosh, that is funny! I agree with you, I think all our televisions are going to protest; they are tired of all this crap! Including all the bad television programs lately. We haven't had good television since the 80's.

That would explain why some of those people on TV seem to watch you and smile so much. Just think a perfect spy network and you just got out of the shower and someone on TV starts going just staring away. I'm scared now.

Hmmm, I bet Toshiba might be nervous if a whole lot of their TV's suddenly went into distress all across the nation at one time. That would be one expensive recall if they sold alot.

Oh well, now I'll just have to sit back and wait for the pizza distress channel signal to be added to my TV package. Maybe it will let me press a button for deep dish pepperoni and hamburger and then the pizza distress guys can immediately come to my house located by the pizza distress tv beacon and render immediate pizza aid to me. Sounds like a good plan if it works.

I submitted this same story, just a little too late. I also found it interesting that people can be held responsible for quirks in their electronic systems. I know that some of us go out of our way to mess with technology, however, in this case we've gotten a slight view of what can be done with errant messages/features and the interception of Government monitoring.

With frequency manipulations, human brain waves, and the like, we are soon to find out what other items exist that may act differently than their intended use.

Watch out!

Originally posted by twitchy
A televsion screen, at least a conventional one, is a photosensitive medium. In laymans terms, it not only can be used to project a picture outwards, it can also "take" pictures. As wild as this sounds it's true. To proove it, next time it has been dark in the room where your television set is, take a lighter or a flahs light and flash it very close to the glass of a televsion set and then you will see a residual image impreinted on the television. Given the fact that a television is also apprently able to broadcast signals, then that makes my freaking skin crawl.

Where on God�s green acre did you come up with this crap?

Do you know anything about electronics?

What is the capture device at the back of the CRT?

The discoloration is from you interacting with the .phosphorescent material that is coated in the tube�

Here check this

www.bartleby.com...
www.udayton.edu...


Or do a search and read it for yourself�

Its an excuse to get in peoples houses. The person dont even know they are coming.

Originally posted by defcon5



The discoloration is from you interacting with the .phosphorescent material that is coated in the tube�

I tend to believe you're right, defcon. Paranoia should only go so far.

Originally posted by defcon5
Where on God�s green acre did you come up with this crap?
Do you know anything about electronics?
What is the capture device at the back of the CRT?
The discoloration is from you interacting with the .phosphorescent material that is coated in the tube�
Or do a search and read it for yourself�

This garabge or crap as you called it is derived from an understanding of the word photosensitive.
"In the television receiver, the original image is reconstructed essentially by reversing the operation of the video camera. The final image is typically displayed on the face of a cathode-ray tube, where an electron beam scans the fluorescent face, called the "screen," line for line with the pickup scanning. The fluorescent deposit on the tube's inside face glows when hit by the electrons, and the visual image is reproduced."
yahooligans.yahoo.com...
Is it so difficult to understand a process reversal here? Any electrons striking a phosphorescent material will emit photons, presto, image. As far as the capture device is concerned, there are a variety of circuits in the modern television, take your pick. That discoloration as you call it is a residual image. Try doing a search on "residual image". Also if this is 'crap' then why are you able to write your name in phosphorescent material with a UV pen and see it up to hours later? Same principle.

Ok just off the top of my head, the electron guns fire from the gun at the back of the tube, forward into the phosphorescent material, not the other way around. The beam is then swept to the top of the screen by the fly back transformer circuit. The beam scans across the screen and then continues onto the next line down, and so on. The picture stays on the screen during this time because the phosphorescent material retains its glow after struck, for an amount of time.

SO to capture an image, you would need someway to illuminate the phosphorescent material from the other side of the screen, then you would need to reverse both the fly back transformer and the guns, you would need to then take this signal and transform it back into a medium that could be transmitted to another location.

If a video camera is nothing more then a reversed TV screen, then what does it need a lens system for?

One more thing, guns don't scan they only fire the electron beam forward.


[edit on 10/23/2004 by defcon5]

A picture tube contains 3 phosphorescent dots, red, blue and green that are each excited depending on the frequency of the electron beam that passes over it. The electron beam scans left to right at 60Hz 525 times from the top of the screen to the bottom (on a non-HD tv). Even though you can excite the phosphor using a light source on the opposite site of the picture tube, there is no way that that can be recorded of digitized in any way shape or form while the tv is on and running.
The picture tube is like a big capacitor, the flyback transformer charges the annode (positive) side of the tube (with about 80,000 volts), and the electron beam generates the cathode (negative) which is drawn towards the anode due to the vacuum within the tube. The anode is the grid of tri color phosphor painted on the inside front of the tube. The electron beam is oscillated left to right and up and down by a group of coils on the outside of the tube surrounding a flexible steel ribbon on the inside of the tube.
As I said it scans left to right 60 times per second, and scans across the screen from top to bottom 525 times.

The beam frequency gets changed on the fly by the tuner and other tv circuitry, which gets more complicated than I care to spell out in this post. But I'm positive that there is no physical way that a picture tube tv set can do anything but provide a picture and sound, it cannot work in reverse.

-Scott

Since I see this thread is not totally dead, I am going to add one thing to it�

Every now and again, these stories of being able to reverse your TV to watch in your house make the rounds. Every time this has come up before, I have stated this, but neglected to this time, so here goes:


1) Your TV cannot record video, yes the speaker can be reversed into a mic, but the CRT cannot.
2) DO NOT GO LOOKING INSIDE YOUR TV FOR ANYTHING, unless your qualified to do this.
3) If you think your TV is recording you, YOUR NOT QUALIFIED TO OPEN IT.
4)Your TV is one of the few items around your house that can KILL YOU, EVEN UNPLUGGED.


I have literally seen the voltage Tripler that runs the fly back transformer MELT a Black and Decker hardened screwdriver, two hours after the TV was unplugged. Voltage Tripler�s and Doublers are made with capacitors, that can retain their charge for an indefinite amount of time after they have had their power cut.

I was burned by a Voltage Doubler on a strobe light, when someone handed it to me without discharging the capacitors, while I was in electronics school. That device was powered by a 9volt battery and the charge only passed through my hand a few inches, imagine what a 110-170 Volt Voltage Tripler will do to you.

Enuf Said?

I don't know much about electronics so bear with me.

The T.V receives a signal and projects the image so we can see it. I think thats right?

So if the T.V is a receiver, how can it transmit a signal back out(An international distress signal of all things) if it wasn't designed to do that?