# Man's TV emits international distress signal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mans-tv-emits-international-distress-signal/270113 "2004-10-19T21:28:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mans-tv-emits-international-distress-signal/270113/1 "2004-10-19T21:28:14Z")
Ok, just saw this [article](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=12&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_re_us/distress_signal). > [@](#): > > On the night of Oct. 2, the TV began emitting the international distress signal — the 121.5 megahertz beep emitted by crashed airplanes and sinking boats. > The signal was picked up by a satellite, relayed to an Air Force base in Virginia, then to the Civil Air Patrol, then to officials in Oregon. Most signals are false alarms, but they’re all checked out, and soon, men in Air Force uniforms, a police officer and Mike Bamberger, a Benton County Search and Rescue deputy, were at van Rossman’s apartment door. Very weird. So, I know there are a lot of electrical gurus on this board. How can this happen? How can a TV emit anything, let alone a signal strong enough to be picked up by satellites? Are televisions and distress call signalers very similar? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mans-tv-emits-international-distress-signal/270113/2 "2004-10-19T21:36:36Z")
The same way most men end up at the proctologist…it was a one in a million chance! It could be a variety of things. A broken oscilator screwing with harmonics, and improperly shielded component, a piece of metal acting as an antenna, etc. It doesn’t take much to communicate with a satelite, and these rescue satlites in particular are designed to work with low-power transmitters. Electronics of any kind can emit all sorts of weird electromagnetic signals when malfunctioning or when their shielding is damaged. This one, for whatever reason, just happened to emit noise at 121.5MHz. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mans-tv-emits-international-distress-signal/270113/3 "2004-10-19T22:34:22Z")
[This sounds familiar](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=281659) ---
**Author:** ![Snaggletooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Snaggletooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snaggletooth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mans-tv-emits-international-distress-signal/270113/4 "2004-10-19T23:22:20Z")
[or this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5386717#post5386717)😃