Posted on 06/14/2007 10:05:52 AM PDT by bamahead
(CBS) PALATINE- When a new mom in Palatine went to check her baby monitor recently, she saw a picture that was literally out of this world.
CBS 2's Alita Guillen reports that instead of hearing the coos of her baby boy, it was more like “Hello mission control.”
Natalie Meilinger regularly keeps a close eye on 3-and-a-half-month-old jack. A baby video monitor sits just a few feet from his crib, capturing images of him sleeping. That is, until this week, when those images went from Jack’s room to outer space.
“I'm going why am I picking up NASA or the space station, then I just went to bed. Sure enough put it on in the morning and screamed... 'It's NASA! It's a space station! Why are we getting this?'” Meilinger said.
Since Sunday, the Meilingers’ baby monitor has been showing the space shuttle Atlantis docked at the International Space Station. They've seen a space walk, the earth and mission control.
Tom Meilinger, Jack's dad, said, "It's kind of like, rub your eyes again and then here's an astronaut.”
Natalie tried bringing the monitor to Mt. Prospect to share the images with friends but it didn't work.
She also called a friend who has the same type of baby monitor and asked if she was seeing the same thing. The friend wasn't, so Meilinger called the monitor's manufacturer, but they couldn't help her.
“People thought I was crazy,” Natalie said.
The images captured in this house are the same as those publicly broadcast on the NASA website. NASA doesn't know why the Meilinger's monitor is picking up their broadcasts. Engineers at CBS 2 are investigating the cause.
The Meilingers say since discovering the reception they've had the baby monitor on 24 hours a day, but it's not always to watch little Jack.
“What will we see next and will we see something like this again? I don’t know, like I said, there’s been space activity the last few years and we’ve never seen anything like this,” Natalie said.
Double Space and This-is-not-a ping!
I love double pings :)
So the frequencies are the same! No surprise.
Depends...
;-)
Meanwhile, the Atlantis astronauts have been puzzled to see images of a sleeping baby on their video monitor.
Ours used to pick up our neighbors arguing. They had the same kind of monitor we had and if they argued in their baby’s room we could hear them on our baby monitor.
The shuttle would be much more interesting and entertaining.
Very Good!!
On our monitor in our old apartment we once picked up a woman on her cordless phone talking on a “date” line. It was interesting for a while, but since all she was doing was leaving messages for men on the line, it was kind of one sided.
Answer: Sadly, probably so...
Another question: Are some TV news reporters really this clueless?
Answer: Without a doubt...
I enjoy reading about quirks of life.
Like spell check, baby monitors can be be the Devil if used for nefarious purposes, even inadvertently! I've picked up one neighbor and her daughter discussing a recent incident of adultery involving a student of the daughter's husband; my mother once picked up her in-laws discussing how much they disliked and resented my mother and her husband; my other neighbor once picked up friends of their engaged in a vigorous love-making session . . .
I just bought a baby monitor last week. I talked my wife out of the video baby monitor. Dammit.
It’s probably video from a neighbor’s WAVECom type unit but it could be from an amateur (HAM) radio TV repeater.
I received video from the Sanyo blimp on mine a few years back.
There was a women’s golf tournament at a golf course about a mile away and the blimp flew right over my house.
I called and asked if they wanted me to send them my video but they said no.
Bil Munsil
K1ATV HAM TV
Mesa AZ
Hams should be SEEN as well as heard.
(Unless they live in nudist resorts, that is.
WOW! Thanks!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.