Invisible signals are constantly flying through the air around us, beyond the spectrum of light visible to the human eye. These radio waves, which can be as wide as houses, carry information between computers, GPS systems, cell phones, and more. In fact, the signal your phone transmits is so strong, if you could see radio waves, your phone would be visible from Jupiter. Unfortunately, the sky is often flooded with interference from routers, satellites, and phones that haven’t been put on airplane mode. This setting isn’t just to protect your flight, but to protect everyone else in your flight path.
Cell phones emit electromagnetic waves in the form of radio waves, which come in a range of wavelengths. When you make a call, your phone generates a radio wave signal and sends it to the nearest cell tower. If you’re far from service, your phone will expend more battery power to send a higher amplitude signal in an effort to make a connection. Once connected, this signal is relayed between cell towers all the way to your call’s recipient. To ensure that each phone involved with the call is not picking up other people’s calls, cell towers assign each phone its own wavelength, which is slightly different from the wavelength it receives information on.
The demand for ownership of these wavelengths has increased dramatically since the advent of Wi-Fi, which has resulted in a limited number of colors to choose from and an increased difficulty in avoiding interference. This interference is especially prominent during regional emergencies, when everyone is trying to use their phones at the same time. Other sources of interference, such as phones searching for signals from thousands of meters in the sky, are preventable. For example, when phones on planes are very far from cell towers, they work overtime to send the loudest signals they can in search of service. This can lead to a massive signal being sent to a cell tower when the plane is much closer than expected, drowning out signals on the ground.
Our electronics also emit rogue radio waves, slowing down our internet and making our calls choppy. This leads to consumers having to pay for more bandwidth, pushing service providers to take over more of the radio spectrum and send more satellites into the sky. This creates a vicious cycle that could eventually blot out the stars. Radio telescopes used for astronomy rely on a specific band of wavelengths to see deep into space, but this range is not always enforced. For example, the Very Large Array can see signals throughout our solar system from 1 to 50 GHz, but its search could be drowned out by phones on 5G networks.
Nowhere on Earth is truly radio quiet, as satellites relaying signals around the globe have blanketed the planet in radio waves. However, there are still a few places with less crowded skies, where radio telescopes can look deep into space and uncover the secrets of galaxies up to 96 billion light years away.