153 Urgent: Protect the National Radio Quiet Zone

A handful of places still let your nervous system breathe, and Green Bank, West Virginia, is one of them. We sit down with returning guest Andrew McAfee—author, inventor, teacher and licensed electrician—to unpack why the town’s famed radio quiet sanctuary is suddenly vulnerable and what it will take to keep it intact. A recent policy shift around 2.4 GHz opens the door to Wi‑Fi meshes, smart meters and new towers that could erase the very conditions that make recovery possible for so many.

There’s a practical path forward. Children’s Health Defense is engaged to push a targeted update to West Virginia state law so protections extend to people, not only the telescope. The strategy is concrete: fund the legal brief, sustain lobbying, and lock in a framework that prevents 2.4 GHz from seeding the very infrastructure Green Bank has long avoided. Andrew also shares how Safe Home helps electrically sensitive residents navigate housing and power-grid issues so they can actually live well in this unique low-EMF area.

Your help can make the difference, please consider donating now to this important initiative:  https://childrenshealthdefense.org/support/protect-the-national-radio-quiet-zone/

Avoid fees by mailing a check to:
Children's Health Defense
852 Franklin Ave., Suite 511
Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417

Include a note that the donation is specifically for the "Protect the NRQZ"

These special prices are good only through the end of October 2025.  Here's the link for 50% off the EMF Remedy Premium audio podcast only: https://emfremedypremium.supercast.com/subscriptions/new?code=36bd7df2-7f65-406e-a569-b72974adfd0c

Here's the link for 60% off the EMF Remedy Premium audio podcast + One year of Keith's Substack: https://emfremedypremium.supercast.com/subscriptions/new?code=36bd7df2-7f65-406e-a569-b72974adfd0c

Chapters

• 0:00 Preserving Pristine Environments
• 8:17 What Green Bank Really Is
• 10:12 Policy Shift On 2.4 GHz
• 12:32 Health Changes In Quiet Zones
• 14:32 Bacteria, Radiation, And Disease
• 17:47 A National Treasure At Risk
• 20:02 Legal Path With CHD

Transcript

Keith Cutter: 4:02

Welcome to the EMF Remedy Podcast. My friends, there is absolutely nothing more important than preserving the pristine environments we already have. There's a unique opportunity right this instant. In fact, I put everything aside so I could quickly get Andrew McAfee on the show today to discuss this issue. We have the chance to preserve an enormous national treasure. A way that anybody can go and feel what it's like to spend some time apart from synthetic feels coming up. Andrew is a returning guest to the podcast, and he is an author, he's an inventor, he's a teacher, and now he's a licensed electrician. If you have low frequency issues in your home associated with the power lines, I don't know of a better resource to recommend. Andrew's going to talk to us today about a very important initiative that's going on. So, Andrew, welcome back to the EMF Remedy Podcast.

Andrew McAfee: 5:36

Thank you very much, Keith. It is an honor to be with you. I'm always comforted by your voice and your wisdom.

Keith Cutter: 5:42

Let's get right into it. Um, what is Greenbank and what is this uh radio quiet zone?

Andrew McAfee: 5:51

Yeah, Greenbank is a very small town in West Virginia where there's a Green Bank Observatory. It's uh the world's largest radio telescope. You can see it here in the picture. And the radio quiet zone is technically a very large area that's protected under the FCC. But recently, the Green Bank Observatory has enacted a new policy that they're not objecting to 2.4 gigahertz now in the environment. So there is a state law that covers a 10-mile radius, and you'll see on the screen that that's very tight around the telescope. And there are very, very strict rules, but the most important part I want to express is this is state law. This is not FCC. And it and as far as I know, it is only the only state that has a very, very stringent state law that protects uh this area, but it has to be activated or engaged by the observatory, no stranger off the street, or I can't call up the Pocahontas County attorney and say, hey, I'm being radiated. That's not what the law is for, it's protect the telescope. So now that the new 2.4 gigahertz policy has been you know enacted by the GBO, I believe it is the end of the radio quiet zone. The infrastructure for citywide Wi-Fi, for cell phone towers, especially smart meters, can all utilize the 2.4 gigahertz radio signal, and there would be nothing stopping them if the observatory is not regulating that frequency anymore. So I believe our investment, our property, our health will be, you know, destroyed, I think, within a year that it takes for that infrastructure to move in.

Keith Cutter: 7:52

How how important is it for people to get to a pristine environment?

Andrew McAfee: 8:00

Well, I think you've done a great job of illuminating the before and after effects and the extremely subtle changes that can happen over time that people won't even know. But I've traced my own entering in, staying a few days, exiting out, coming back to civilization, and over time, the my immune system, my histamine response, my sleep coordination, all of these factors that have over two years of doing this, going to my property there, and the very significant changes in my health have been startling to me. I didn't I didn't realize how much. But now I can express to other people, sure, you need to come up for a couple of days. I say three days minimum to allow your immune system to go through this transition. And for me, it is uh essential for anyone to recover from any advanced disease. Without this purity, the body cannot heal. Yeah, I believe it is uh an infection that we are fighting. Now, this gets quite controversial, but let me sort it out. Great research has been shown by Dr. Sharon Goldberg on how certain frequencies, like 2.4 gigahertz, will increase an infection, and she has specific uh results with E. coli, which is you know our waste products, and uh whether it's staph arius, with we're talking about MERSA, the hospital is like the number one bacterial problem with antibiotics, and you've got other staph infections and and um pneumonia and other types of in um infections that are increased around both cell phone and Wi-Fi frequencies. And her research, I believe, is critically important to understand because everybody's focusing on well, thermal standards, what is the cell response around this energy? I want to change the entire discussion to we're just talking about bacterial infections, and we're responding to when the bacteria feel stressed, they put out poisons, they cause inflammation, they cause these other uh markers, uh, headaches, pain, you know, inflammation, all these other um diseases, diabetes, um, heart, everybody's having heart problems now. Now, we can get into other topics, but just focusing on the radiation in bacteria is enough to explain a lot of diseases. Uh MS is a huge one related to the exposure to wireless frequencies.

Keith Cutter: 11:05

So we have this uh national treasure, I'll call it that, which is the radio quiet zone. And you've personally experienced I only wish that I could experience going down there and being able to drive around and uh and feel great again, like we did when we were children before there was this reckless spread of harmful man-made electromagnetic radiation. And um we we need to keep it. We need to keep it, we need to hold on to this. So um we're part you're partnering with children's health defense, and you're looking for funding, correct? And yes, make us what you'd like to see happen.

Andrew McAfee: 11:50

I have engaged personally, individually, the lawyers and legal team at Children's Health Defense to upgrade the state law to include human beings, not just protect from interference to the radio telescope. So Children's Health Defense has a dedicated page for this specific action. If you give tax-deductible donations, there is a page exactly all that money goes to protect the national radio quiet zone. Now, you can make the argument, well, it's not the really the national radio quiet zone, it's a smaller part of it, but it affects the whole thing. Anyone that lives in that area is gonna feel the benefits of what we do here. So by making a donation, uh, you're going to be um covering basically the legal fees. I have $15,000 due in 90 days, and I've already got a good start with a couple of uh strong donors locally that are landowners and people that are passionate. But it's gonna take a lot more after that because the end they have the lobbying effect that's gonna kick in after the legal. The lobbying fees are not gonna be paid by the legal fees to actually make something work in the house legislature and and with lobbying. Everybody knows here how uh slimy that can be, and making sausages is not pretty. So it's gonna be a long battle, but I believe you know, this is it. This is this is the place if anybody's going to invest on a what on one project to be the marker for the country, in my opinion. This has the best chance. There's no infrastructure, there's no cell phone towers. There's already a long tradition of having a protected area and people living there under the assumption, well, the cell phones don't work here. So you don't have to change a lot of things. It's already built in. You already have the laws, you already have the West Virginia state law. It's already built in. All we have to transform it is to protecting humans rather than just interference.

Keith Cutter: 13:47

Wonderful. So we have a link and we're gonna put that in the description so people can easily make a donation. Do you have any any final thoughts on this? And then I want to say a few words.

Andrew McAfee: 14:00

Absolutely. I am also the board president of uh what's called Safe Home. We help people that are electrically sensitive move to Green Bank and find safe housing, which is really, really hard. The power grid is is ugly in Green Bank, just like everywhere else. So you need to have a solution for the power grid. And um, you get benefits becoming a member. And if you want to visit Green Bank, you're welcome to do that anytime. But if you want to stay, it's very difficult. And Lau is to help you, and Safe Home has a mechanism to do that. So, with that said, you know, in my bet in my belief, this is the best investment people can make in their healthy future for a place where they can both recover, go to you know, recuperate, but also if you want to invest in a retirement place that you want to go and live, I think now is the time, and this is the best place. Because I believe if we secure this, if we get this place, the the property right, uh, the property values will skyrocket.

Keith Cutter: 15:04

Yeah, well, it's a it's a limited commodity. Um there's not going to be any more protected land uh protected by law, obviously. All right, so um I and I want to say a few words here. Now, I'm not um I'm not really happy with everything that Children's Health Defense has done in the last year. I have a couple of concerns, but I want to make it very clear that I support this initiative. In fact, I don't know anybody who is better suited to handle this from a legal um perspective than children's health defense. So this initiative has my full uh support. Uh further, I don't know anybody who is uh better suited to drive this from an industry perspective. Uh this this safe home uh initiative that you were just talking about absolutely marvelous uh the way that integrates. I know from personal experience and from working with many people how important it is uh that folks can get to a pristine environment. And we we need to preserve this one. And so putting my money where my mouth is, I made a generous contribution this morning. Uh minutes after I found out uh well, minutes after I got the email on this. So I want to ask you, dear friends who are listening, are you going to just listen? Or um are you going to take action? Because this isn't going to happen by itself. And um we've we've got to invest if we want to keep this national treasure. So I want to encourage you, please, if you are able, um donation large or small, and I will put the link in the description, both on uh YouTube as well as my weekly audio podcast. So Andrew, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about this initiative.

Andrew McAfee: 17:11

It's been my pleasure, and Keith, thank you so very much for your commitment and the work that you do. It's invaluable.

Tom: 17:27

The EMF Remedy Podcast is a project of EMF Remedy LLC. We'd like to be your trusted guide for achieving a better EMF environment in your home. The contents on this podcast are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to substitute for the advice provided by your doctor or other healthcare professional. It is not intended to be, nor does it constitute healthcare or medical advice. Opinions of guests on this podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the EMF Remedy Podcast.