Electronics not allowed in this town

No radio, no TV. Neither are WiFi networks and mobile phones available. And you can forget about Bluetooth.

Life without such devices seems impossible these days, but not for the small community of 149 people in the town of Bomont in Green Bank, in the US state of West Virginia in the US.

Scientists use this area to project satellites into space for research, so they can't have waves from personal electronic devices interrupting their signals.

The town is bang in the middle of the 33,670 sq km National Radio Quiet Zone.

Green Bank is home to the largest steerable radio telescope in the world - the Green Bank Telescope. It is arguably the most powerful satellite observing space.

To let the telescope operate without disturbances the town has completely outlawed the use of electronic transmitting devices and a policeman actually patrols the streets looking for wireless signals, reported the Daily Mail.

Only one payphone

Only first responders are allowed to use radios and there is only one payphone.

Residents still have access to the Internet, but at the glacial streaming pace that dial-up offers.

It could be inconvenient for many, but some residents made the town their home in the mid-2000s just to steer clear of technology.

Many of these newer residents say that they now suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, a disease not recognised in the medical community.

People like Ms Diane Schou believe that the waves caused by electronic objects make them sick, much like allergies, and that Green Bank is one of the only places they can live and be healthy.

"Life isn't perfect here," she told online news magazine Slate.

"There's no grocery store, no restaurants, no hospital nearby. But here at least, I'm healthy. I can do things. I'm not in bed with a headache all the time."