In the latest issue of Sky and Telescope there was a short mention of a TV station located in Paterson NJ to be put on channel 37. But the radio astronomy community convinced the FCC to keep channel 37 unoccupied, as some interesting frequencies in that channel are observed by radio astronomers. Natural hydrogen spectral radiation or such. Extremely weak signal work, such that a TV station on ch 37 could leak enough signal over the horizon via the ionosphere or tropo, or maybe enough of a megawatt transmission bouncing off the Moon could be enough to jam the radio astronomy dish receiver. The radio astronomers were located in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia (middle of nowhere is by choice, less RFI).

Paterson NJ had analog TV channels, 41 and 47, both carrying Spanish language programming. I suppose one of these was the channel 37 allocation.

Hmmmmmm..Eenterestink...

Thank God for wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_37

Glad they were able to keep ch37 empty to this day. Isn't this the SETI project? Or perhaps I am mistaken. Reserved for Radio Astronomy is what my frequency chart says for North American Ch.37 Air

Paterson NJ had analog TV channels, 41 and 47, both carrying Spanish language programming. I suppose one of these was the channel 37 allocation.
Actually, 47 was and is assigned to Linden / Newark, NJ (WNJU-TV, signed-on in 1965); the Paterson station signed on channel 41 under call letters WXTV in August 1968 - and it was the latter station whose allocation was to have been on 37.

Glad they were able to keep ch37 empty to this day. Isn't this the SETI project? Or perhaps I am mistaken. Reserved for Radio Astronomy is what my frequency chart says for North American Ch.37 Air

Don't forget medical uses too. Ever seen those little antennas poking through the drop ceiling in hospitals?

With the FCC TV spectrum auction next year and the reclamation of the TV spectrum down to channel 31, I wonder if channel 37 will remain empty?

... I wonder if channel 37 will remain empty?

If they made the division at channel 37, 37 could remain a guard band dividing the cell phones from TV broadcasters.

Otherwise, without a guard band, a cell phone using a frequency very adjacent to a TV signal someone is trying to watch may find that their TV set getting desensed by the cell phone. Sure, a multimegawatt TV station is more powerful than a 100mW cell phone, but that cell phone will look like a flamethrower if you are using it next to that TV set's antenna.