Typically, parents use video baby monitors when they want to keep a remote eye on their precious flesh blobs. Chicagoland mother Natalie Meilinger received a different picture when looking at her receiver: Her baby had aged more than 50 years and obtained a Ph.D. in geosciences.
No, this isn't a variation of the Bugs Bunny classic cartoon when the unknowing rabbit harbored fugitive bank robber Babyface Finster. Meilinger's monitor televised video of astronaut Jim Reilly's spacewalk. The receiver also transmitted the interior of space shuttle Atlantis, the International Space Station mission control, and other NASA operations.
Did the monitor receive a feed from the shuttle?
In an Associated Press story, Doug Phelps, a member of the Illinois chapter of the Motorola Amateur Radio Club, provided the answer. His club rebroadcasts NASA video as a public service. The monitor likely picked up the video because amateur radio operates on the same frequency as baby monitors.
"If you had a receiver in the right frequency, anybody in the public can pick up this signal," he said.