> > With all the recent discussion on digital TV channel
> > elections and remapping, there's a question I'd like to
> pose
> > that I haven't yet seen addressed. UHF Channel 37 is a
> > "quiet" channel long reserved for radio astronomy and
> > (later) medical telemetry on a secondary basis. With the
> > advent of digital televison, will broadcasters be able to
> > "map" to this channel, since this won't involve actually
> > broadcasting a signal there? I wonder why the channel has
>
> > remained on television dials for so long and hasn't been
> > removed, as was channel 1. Since even broadcast channel
> > numbers are basically arbitrary (unlike AM and FM where
> they
> > actually represent a wavelength), I'm guessing the
> astronomy
> > reservation came after the band was allocated for TV, or
> the
> > FCC could have just skipped that range of frequencies and
> > placed the channel #37 designation on the frequency range
> > now occupied by channel 38, 38 on the range that's now 39,
>
> > and so on the same way up the dial, similar to the
> > electronic "gaps" between VHF channels 4 and 5, and 6 and
> 7.
> >
> The FCC prohibited the use of channel 37 nationwide after
> January 1, 1974.
>
> The cover story is that it was being reserved for radio
> astronomy purposes, but most everyone knows that it is the
> CIA surveilence and espionage channel.

>
> Just kidding...
>
> Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe.
> Making up about 85% of the atoms. So it is logical to assume
> any such civilization that would be looking to send a signal
> of "See us, we are here," would use this.
>
> The resonant frequency of the hydrogen atom is somewhere
> within channel 37.
>
> Radio astronomy folks started complaining about interference
> with interstellar radio signals and got the ITU to rule
> channel 37 off limits.
>
> So by the time this came into being it was too much trouble
> to renumber the dial.
>
> Yes you could map to channel 37. Some stations were mapping
> to Channel 1. Heck I even had a cable company that had a
> cable channel zero.
Do you happen to know what frequency they used for channel zero?
Since broadcast channel 37 is cable channel 88 on most analog systems, are cable companies allowed to use 88? I've never seen one that did, but that could be because cable channels 65-94 and 100-116(the UHF broadcast channels) aren't generally used anyway.
>
> For more info see The Last Empty Channel
>