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This is going to make radio astronomy more difficult. There are several spectral lines that lie between 3 and 10 GHz (I'm assuming that 10 is somewhere near the upper limit). As if light pollution and Iridium satellites weren't bad enough for visual astronomy, now radio astronomers are going to have to deal with elevated noise levels in a few interesting lines.

It looks like business wins out over the quest for knowledge once again.

When I was an undergrad (I'm an astrophysics grad student now), I spent 1 1/2 years doing research for a radio astronomer who was a member of the International Astronomical Union (as most astronomers are). A significant part of his time was spent lobbying for the SKA, and I got the opportunity to learn a lot about the device.

The main thrust of the Square Kilometer Array is NOT to detect extraterrestrial life. That happens to be one of the flashier goals, but it isn't the most interesting to most astronomers. Since more collecting area=more sensitivity and larger baseline = more resolution for a telescope, the SKA will be the most sensitive telescope ever built, though not necessarily capable of the highest resolution (the USA's Very Large Baseline Interferometer currently holds that record). Some of the many topics of interest that will be examined with the SKA include the large scale structure of the universe, first galaxy formation, the intergalactic medium, figuring out what powers quasars and radio galaxies, pulsars, and the radio properties of main-sequence stars. And, of course, looking for other technological civilizations.

It takes a long time to build huge telescopes, not because they are incredibly complex (which they are) or because they are incredibly expensive (they are, but not prohibitively so) but because governments are the ones funding them, and also because astronomers need to make compromises to that the telescope can serve the most users possible as well and as efficiently as possible. Fifteen years is a long time, but the telescope won't be out of date when it is constructed! Most of that 15 years will be spent lobbying for funds, finding a suitable location, getting the necessary permits, doing feasability studies, developing technology (coordinating radio interferometry between 2 dishes is difficult - thousands even more so!), etc. etc. And THEN it gets built, near the end of that 15 years. And, like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Array, the Very Long Baseline Array and the Chandresekhar X-Ray Observatory (all of which took 15-20+ years to lobby, fund, design and build), the SKA will once again radically change the way we look at the sky.

Here are a few links for interested parties:
Homepage of the Square Kilometer Array
Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatories The home of the VLA, VLBI and Arecibo
International Astronomical Union Homepage

Why are slashdotters so anxious to save this thing? It serverly hampers radio astronomy so that Joe and Mary Consumer can feel good about having a cell phone that works anywhere on the globe.

No offense, but I just had a PhD describe the problem to me last week at Lowell Obeservatory. When I said broadcasting, I meant the Iridium network, regardless of how satelite communication works.

Yes, it is radio telescopes, I should have been more descriptive, but I felt that it was farely obvious.
Here's an article on it, and how Motorola doesn't give a flying fuck. Now go eat my shorts.

Here is a report from the The Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF) of the European Science Foundation (ESF). It has more details on the interference with Radio Astronomy (particulary the work of the VLA and the VLBA (Very Large Baseline Array).

I visited the VLA last year, and was saddened to hear that Iridium seem to care so little about the outright damage they were doing to the scientific observations of these hard working scientists. This report speaks of limiting their observations to low traffic hours, giving them only about 4 hours a day! This is terrible. Radio astronomy doesn't require darkness like visual astronomy, so under normal conditions, observations can take place 24x7.

So, if it were up to me, I'd continue the boycott.

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According to this press release NASA is using the radio dishes of Westerbork obervatory. Sofar no results at all Bas (couldn't find my PW)