dodgy digital box sparks big search

violat3 · Feb 15, 2006, 09:17 PM

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/15022006/80...ig-search.html

LONDON (Reuters) - Lifeboats and a helicopter scoured the sea to track down an electronic distress signal -- only for coastguards to discover it came from a pensioner's faulty digital television box on dry land.

The coastguards were scrambled after a rescue coordination centre in Scotland picked up what it believed to be a distress signal coming from the sea off southern England.

But communications experts later traced the signal to the digital television set-top box in the home

of 67-year-old Mary Donaldson in the southwestern port of Plymouth.

"We sent a helicopter out and two lifeboats before we discovered that the signal was in fact coming from inland," a spokesman for the coastguards said on Wednesday.

Donaldson was at the cinema when the experts tracked down the signal. "We sent two officers there to investigate and they were still there when the lady came home," the spokesman said.

The incident late last month was the second time this year a set-top box in Britain has been blamed for a distress signal. Communications regulator Ofcom said both boxes were being analysed but stressed such cases were extremely rare.

Feb 15, 2006, 09:17 PM	#1
violat3 DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Caledonia Posts: 348 Rep Power: 0	dodgy digital box sparks big search http://uk.news.yahoo.com/15022006/80...ig-search.html LONDON (Reuters) - Lifeboats and a helicopter scoured the sea to track down an electronic distress signal -- only for coastguards to discover it came from a pensioner's faulty digital television box on dry land. The coastguards were scrambled after a rescue coordination centre in Scotland picked up what it believed to be a distress signal coming from the sea off southern England. But communications experts later traced the signal to the digital television set-top box in the home of 67-year-old Mary Donaldson in the southwestern port of Plymouth. "We sent a helicopter out and two lifeboats before we discovered that the signal was in fact coming from inland," a spokesman for the coastguards said on Wednesday. Donaldson was at the cinema when the experts tracked down the signal. "We sent two officers there to investigate and they were still there when the lady came home," the spokesman said. The incident late last month was the second time this year a set-top box in Britain has been blamed for a distress signal. Communications regulator Ofcom said both boxes were being analysed but stressed such cases were extremely rare.