A Signal in the Dark: The Death of Ross Mason A sixty-three pound feed horn mounted thirty-one feet high was found upright in frozen gravel eighteen inches from parked trucks on November 28, 2017, with no ladder, tools, or footprints nearby - and the man who maintained the antenna, Ross Mason, was missing. He had run an unscheduled seven-hour recording session that night on the hydrogen line and left a cold pot of coffee and meticulous notebooks behind; what did he hear that made him break a rigid routine? In this episode, we lay out the documented details of Mason’s last days, the repetitive pulsed signal he logged near 1420 MHz, and the scene the deputy found the morning he was reported missing, asking whether the evidence points to interference, a deliberate act, or something else entirely. Person: Ross Mason Date: November 28, 2017 Location: Crestfall Observatory, Harlan County, Nevada, elevation 6,000 ft Signal frequency: ~1420 MHz (hydrogen line) Session length: 7 hours 13 minutes - The feed horn weighed 63 pounds and had been mounted 31 feet above the ground on four grade-eight bolts. - The feed horn lay upright in the driveway, 18 inches from the spot where trucks park, with no ladder, tools, or footprints and frozen ground. - Mason had lived at Crestfall Observatory for just under three years on a residency grant and kept a strict schedule: dinner 5:30, bed 9:15, up 5:00. - He documented a pulsed signal pattern across 17 sessions over six weeks, with groupings like three short, three long, three short, then a ~40-second gap. - On November 27 at 11:04 PM he started an unscheduled recording that ran until 6:17 AM; the terminal was still running and the coffee brewed at 6:00 AM was cold when Deputy Sandra Fitch arrived. Tired of ads? Listen to this podcast and 200+ more ad-free on OBOMEDIA. Try it free for 7 days, cancel anytime: https://obomedia.com/en/gratis?ref=desc-7198320 © 2026 Created by an independent creator of the OBOMEDIA Network. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the property of their respective creator, who is solely responsible for them, and are distributed by the OBOMEDIA Network on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pocket Casts. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without the creator's prior written permission is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
