This is a follow-up on an article I posted a few weeks ago. Not
shortwave however, closer than a large amount of posts.

No more distress for Corvallis TV

By Jennifer Nitson
CORVALLIS Gazette-Times

As word of the Corvallis television that emitted the international
distress signal spread to every continent, Chris van Rossmann became a
very popular guy.

CBS, Reuters and the New York Times joined dozens of local and
not-so-local radio programs and a local TV station or two in clamoring
for interviews with the 22-year-old Corvallis man suddenly thrust into
the media spotlight.

His cell phone began to ring at all hours of the day with calls from
reporters from the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
Techie Web sites such as Slashdot and CNET featured ongoing
discussions and attempted explanations of the phenomenon. Van Rossmann
struggled to cope with fame.

"It was hard keeping track of all the interviews I was supposed to do
at all different times of the day throughout the week," van Rossmann
said. "My mother kind of became my unofficial secretary, because
they'd call her first."

Van Rossmann's mom was generous with his cell phone number.

"She'd sell me out to anyone," van Rossmann laughed.

After opening his front door Oct. 3 to find a group of uniformed men,
van Rossmann learned his 20-inch Toshiba television was sending out a
cry for help. The 121.5 MHz signal it was emitting was the same
frequency broadcast by electronic locator transponders that help
search teams find crashed planes or overturned boats.

It had been picked up by an orbiting satellite, and rescue workers
scrambled to find the source. Most ELT signals are false alarms, but
the Civil Air Patrol checks out every one.

When informed that he could face a $10,000 fine if he turned his TV
back on, van Rossmann took it in stride.

By the time the first reporter caught up with him several days later,
van Rossmann had called Toshiba tech support. Someone there told him
to fiddle with the set and see if he could get it to work right, but
he wasn't taking the chance.

The warranty had run out, and he figured he'd just go without
television. But after he let the media into his bachelor pad to
photograph the TV that cried wolf, Toshiba offered to give van
Rossmann a new television.

While waiting for the new set to be delivered, he continued to contend
with intrepid reporters hot on his trail. The radio DJs were the most
aggressive, van Rossmann said, as they would call very early in the
day to get a live morning show interview.

"It took me a little while to try to get the story down to a little
30-second bit that I could regurgitate," van Rossmann said. "Otherwise
I'd just ramble, and that's not good for radio. Especially that early
in the morning, when I'm not thinking straight."

A sleep-in-as-long-as-possible kind of guy, van Rossmann was jolted
awake one morning by an unscheduled call before 7 a.m.

"I had to pull that one out of nowhere," van Rossmann said of the
interview.

So many people want a piece of van Rossmann that he's had to get
selective. As his workmates at University Honda in Corvallis became
increasingly annoyed at the constant interruptions of reporters
calling his cell phone, he began to pick and choose which interviews
he would do.

"I did actually have some people from ‘Inside Edition' try to get
ahold of me," he said. "I was going to call them back, but I decided
not to."

Van Rossmann is interested in doing a segment with Comedy Central's
"The Daily Show" after receiving a call from its staff. He's waiting
for a call back.

He also plans on responding to a request from Formulation Inc., which
helps produce a weekly quiz show in Japan called "The Real Mystery."
He'll get ahold of the company via e-mail, he said, as his cell phone
bill is likely to be scary.

When Toshiba delivered his new TV it took back the old one, which has
now been tested by both company's tech wizards and the Federal
Communications Commission.

Toshiba spokeswoman Maria Repole said lab results showed that any
121.5 MHz emissions the TV was putting off were within FCC limits for
home electronics. Something else must have been sending the signal,
and the Civil Air Patrol that checked it out must have been mistaken,
she said.

"We can't determine that they were 100 percent correct," Repole said.
"Based on the FCC results, it's not conclusive that it was the T.V."

Benton County Search and Rescue Deputy Mike Bamberger, who went to van
Rossmann's apartment with the Civil Air Patrol team the day the TV
freaked out, has no such uncertainty.

"The satellite stopped detecting (the signal) when he turned it off,"
Bamberger said. "There's no doubt in my mind that it definitely was
the TV. I don't know what happened between here and there. They've got
their story, and they're sticking by it. I know what I saw."

Jim Swirczynski, an electrical engineer who ran the electronics shops
at Oregon State University for five years and at the University of
Oregon for 15 years, offered an explanation. His theory addresses why
a home appliance might send out a 121.5 MHz signal and why Toshiba and
the FCC might not pick it up.

Electronic equipment contains small crystal components called
oscillators, he said. In a television, these oscillators might be
half-inch pieces of quartz that have been cut in such a way that, when
stimulated by an electronic current, they vibrate — or oscillate — at
a specific frequency.

If one of these fragile components breaks or degrades, the shape of
the crystal is altered and so is the frequency it emits.

A television such as van Rossmann's, which has a built-in VCR, DVD
player and numerous other features, would contain not one but many
oscillators, Swirczynski said.Whatever the problem with the TV in
question, van Rossmann is glad to be rid of it and said the new one
showed up just in time.

"The Internet went out right after that," he said. "Some contractors
knocked out the phone lin es. I'm not having very good luck with my
electronics."

During his TV-free period, though, one of his favorite shows got
rescheduled. The children's program "Arthur" is no longer on Oregon
Public Broadcasting when van Rossman wakes up in the morning.

"OPB changed the scheduling, so it's not on anymore," he lamented.
"Now it's the ‘Teletubbies,' which I refuse to watch. Nowadays, I just
sleep in."