UK STB sends out SOS

by Evan Blass, posted Jan 15th 2006 at 2:00PM

A digital settop box in the UK recently pulled off a feat that is said to have odds of "far more than 14 million-to-one" when it somehow broadcast an SOS distress signal on the very channel that the Royal Airforce uses for emergencies at sea. A Moray-based helicopter spent two hours searching the Portsmouth Harbour area for the supposed "distressed vessel" before ground-based techs at telecom regulator Ofcom were able to trace the signal to a malfunctioning Freeview box located on dry land. Thankfully for the owner of the box, it sent out a mayday as opposed to broadcasting the international signal for "step up, yo," in which case he/she may have ended up suffering the full wrath of the British war machine.

[Thanks, Tom]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

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Neutral

Josh S. @ Jan 15th 2006 2:10PM

I think this actually happened once before, a few months ago, in the USA. It was an old Toshiba Television that did it.

Just did a quick google search, here is a link to the story:

Neutral

Josh S. @ Jan 15th 2006 2:12PM

Sorry, here is the link:

http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/10/17/news/top_story/gtsun01.txt

Neutral

Solar @ Jan 15th 2006 2:12PM

I live in Portsmouth!

Shame I wasn't around when it happend though... Knowing the people around here though it probably wasn't intentional :-p

Neutral

CRP Addict @ Jan 15th 2006 2:30PM

A little competition is not bad, space must be open for everyone...

Neutral

Callum @ Jan 15th 2006 4:48PM

Hey Solar - I'm up in Moray. We should have a Engadget UK meetup one day!

Neutral

Giles @ Jan 16th 2006 4:40AM

I'm in Portsmouth (UK) too! Knowing the people I know I would guess it WAS deliberate! Nice to see my little town in international news... :)

Neutral

Robert @ Jan 16th 2006 11:05AM

This has happened twice before in the United States within the past year or so. One was in Oregon which had an article done on it as John S. mentioned, and another much less known case in Miami, Florida. Both cases were due to a Toshiba television gone mad (receiver turned transceiver) sending out an odd signal on 121.5Mhz. I'm curious to know what television the homeowner had. Was it really the freeview box or another Toshiba?

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