{"id":955,"date":"2009-07-25T17:48:41","date_gmt":"2009-07-25T17:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/where_old_diesels_soldier_on.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:44:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:44:41","slug":"where_old_diesels_soldier_on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/where_old_diesels_soldier_on.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Where Old Diesels Soldier On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Green<\/a><\/span>
\nOne of the places we visited on vacation was The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia<\/a>, home of The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope<\/a> (GBT), the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope as well as several others. The GBT is a 100 meter dish that’s able to be positioned to point at any place in the sky above 5 degrees. It’s huge and it’s awesome.
\nBecause the telescopes on the property are radio telescopes and the GBT in particular is so sensitive, special restrictions are in place for the surrounding area. First, there’s a huge ‘National Radio Quiet Zone<\/a>‘ covering a large part of south eastern WV and north western VA. Second, all electronic devices give off some kind of radio waves, so all cell phones and digital cameras had to be turned off once we left the main parking area of the Observatory. The picture above was taken at the max. zoom on my camera from the observation point.
\nOne of the other restrictions that interested me was that only diesel vehicles are used on the property as the spark plugs in gasoline engines create interference. As a result, there were a fleet of neat old diesel vehicles around the property. I assume that they use these old cars and trucks because of the lack of computers that could cause interference, although the tour guide did say that they had a newer fleet as well.
\n\"GBT<\/a><\/span>This was our tour bus, an old 1984 MCI tour bus. It was a little worse for wear on the inside, and they made no attempt to identify it as a vehicle of the Observatory. Still wore the yellow stripes and orange seats of its former life. Simple and did it’s job.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"GBT<\/a><\/span> Our friends who were with us had been here 11 years ago. They didn’t have a bus then (and the GBT was under construction), so the tour was conducted in these late 60’s diesel Chevy Suburbans<\/a> and here are these nearly 40 year old trucks still in service. If you look to the left, half out of the frame, you’ll see a mid 80’s diesel VW pickup<\/a>. I saw two diesel Rabbits<\/a> there of the same vintage too.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"GBT<\/a><\/span>At first I thought these were more Suburbans, just darker blue this time. But look closely, they are International Travelalls<\/a>. The Suburbans were three doors (no rear door on the driver’s side), these have four. And that’s an International Scout<\/a> pickup hiding behind those two.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"GBT<\/a><\/span>The piece de resistance – a diesel Checker Marathon<\/a> wagon. I gotta believe that not too many Checker wagons have survived, I wonder how many have diesels? If you can look past my grainy picture taken from a moving bus, it looks pretty darn solid, too.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

There may have been other diesels, but I didn’t catch them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the places we visited on vacation was The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, home of The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), theRead More Where Old Diesels Soldier On<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Old Diesels Soldier On - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/where_old_diesels_soldier_on.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Old Diesels Soldier On - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the places we visited on vacation was The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, home of The Robert C. 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Funny thing was about 15\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Driving"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Driving","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/cars-and-driving"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adjust Your Mirrors","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/assets_c\/2011\/01\/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots-graphic-thumb-500x571-1858.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1003,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2010\/01\/five_for_friday_7.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":955,"position":1},"title":"Five for Friday","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"An \"Occassional Series\" here at Salguod.net. Inspired by Daniel at Alien Soil, I fire up Media Player on random and post the first 5 songs here. Switchfoot - Amunition from The Beautiful LetdownGreat song from a great CD. I like Switchfoot's way of putting a spiritual message in a song\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Goofiness"","block_context":{"text":"Goofiness","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/goofiness"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.salguod.net\/weblog\/images\/five-for-friday\/Thebeautifulletdown.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/02\/ear_worm.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":955,"position":2},"title":"Ear Worm","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Disney knows how to do an ear worm. You know, those songs like It's A Small World that just run around and around and around in your head no matter what you do. My 3 girls love the Disney channel, it's pretty much all they watch when they watch TV.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Goofiness"","block_context":{"text":"Goofiness","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/goofiness"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2009\/09\/romans_12_-_sacrifice_and_service.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":955,"position":3},"title":"Romans 12 – Sacrifice and Service","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/04\/ezekiel_14.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":955,"position":4},"title":"Ezekiel 14","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"April 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel 14:3 - \"these men have taken their idols into their hearts\" Not only paying lip service to an idol, but taking it into their hearts. Ezekiel 14:4-5 - If you come to God, through his prophet, with idols in you heart, He will answer as if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":235,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/12\/bah_humbug.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":955,"position":5},"title":"Bah Humbug","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"December 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure if I should feel good about this or not, but I do. Alan and Bonnie Aerts have been putting up $150,000 worth (!) of Christmans decorations at their California home for the last 6 years. Not this year though: This year, though, the merry menagerie stayed indoors.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News & Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"News & Current Events","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/news-current-events"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1330,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}