tv snow is caused in part by cosmic rays?

[zenith2134]

I had a fascinating conversation with an old tech today. We discussed tube audio gear, recording, and of course crt tv's and the death of NTSC.

He went on to tell me that the 'snow' we see on an unused channel contains background radiation from space, which lingers from the creation of the universe(!) I was nodding along politely, thinking this was total bullshit. Then when I got home I got on the net and ran a quick n dirty search, and to my surprise he was correct..Two sites I came across claim that this radiation is anywhere from a quarter to a third of the snow commonly seen on an analog tv screen.

Bizarre to say the least. My question is as follows- how does a standard, nothing-fancy tv set pick this up? is it everywhere on earth? The guy I was talking to said you don't need any sort of antenna to see it. Confused