A TV cries 'wolf'.

• Position: Technology - Brief Article

Last October, Chris van Rossman's TV set sent out a cry for help that bounced off two satellites and reached Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. A team of sheriff's deputies and Civil Air Patrol volunteers soon appeared at Van Rossman's apartment in Oregon. They told him to keep his TV turned off or face $10,000 in fines a day. Like all electrical. appliances, the TV had been giving off energy. But a malfunction caused the TV to emit electromagnetic waves at 121.5 megahertz--a frequency that is reserved for international distress signals. Each year, thousands...