Shut The Cell Up! (JAMMERS)

CBS News ^ | March 13, 2005

[srm913]

Wouldn't it be great if with one button you could zip obnoxious lips. Well, you can. It's called a cell phone jammer.

"I can't turn it on, for legal reasons, but if I did, mobile phones in this room would die within seconds," says Michael Menage of Global Gadget UK.

Every cell phone within 200 feet flatlines, including important emergency calls, which is why jammers are illegal to have.

But, as CBS News Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, when CBS went undercover, posing as nightclub owners into a New York City spy shop, it became apparent that they're pretty easy to buy.

When we asked if one could be obtained within 24 hours, we were told, "Yeah, just tell me when you want it, and I'll get it for you."

Moments later, a jammer was purchased out of the back room for $2,000.

For a lot less, you can order them online from companies overseas. Menage says more than 2,000 of the jammers he sells every year are shipped to the United States.

"I would say most of our customers are just people who are cheesed-off by people using mobile telephones indiscreetly," says Menage. "Then there is the business sector."

Restaurants, casinos, even churches are buying jammers. But the FCC says, it amounts to stealing, saying cell phone users pay good money to access the airwaves.

"The penalties are huge if you get caught," says Rob Bernstein of Sync Magazine. "Just having a cell phone jammer can cost you $11,000 and a year in prison."

But the thing is, no one has been caught. Most people don't even know they've been jammed.

So the next time your call drops out, think twice. Someone might have been sick of your lip and just made you "shut the cell up."

[srm913]

No, this is NOT the same article as the New York Post article of the same name published last month.

Here's a picture of a jammer. It looks suspiciously like a clunky older cell phone.

[JennysCool]

Chances are one in a million you'll interrupt an "important emergency call"

It's more often than not one spouse telling another to pick up a loaf of bread.

Cell phones deeply suck.

[srm913]

I see them as a necessary evil, too.
I often tick off my friends and folks by either turning off my cell or leaving it behind. There really are times in life when you don't want people to be able to get hold of you!

[JennysCool]

Also, I know three people who in the past year have been diagnosed with brain tumors in the EXACT SPOT they keep their cell phone next to when they're inquiring about that loaf of bread. Simply not good.

[PowerAmp]

Thanks for an interesting post.

I am surprised that the FCC has not gone after the jammers yet. Technically, jammers are easy to catch, and there are plenty of examples of $10,000 fines in the amateur bands, even when there is where no damage to anyone's income.

[demlosers]

I'll wait for the ECCM devices. I wonder when that will be?

[rockrr]

I used to have a radar jammer (automotive) that was fun to play with. I transmitted a signal that was translated by police transceivers as a car going by at 130mph.

You could trigger it for a second or two and then shut it down to avoid capture (not a good thing as they required a federal license to possess!).

I remember that they used to claim that they were "bad" because they interfered with the "important emergency work" of the cops.

More likely I was interfering with the "important emergency revenue source".

I wonder what ever became of that thing?

[dirtbiker]

Also, I know three people who in the past year have been diagnosed with brain tumors in the EXACT SPOT they keep their cell phone next to when they're inquiring about that loaf of bread. Simply not good

Precisely why I use the hands-free earpiece.....

[KateatRFM]

All churches ought to have them. Two years ago I had a woman sitting ahead of me at Midnight Mass who blabbered ceeaselessly to relatives about plans for the next day, during the entire service! I spoke to the verger who asked her to be quiet, and as I understand it she told him to mind his own business. Being a Canadian Rabbit, he did, and she blabbered on and on ...

[JennysCool]

I'm in no way one of those paranoid tinfoil folks, but if what I've heard about lately both in experience and conversation indicates some sort of trend, there could be a class-action lawsuit on the horizon dwarfing anything we've ever seen.

[spinestein]

[a jammer was purchased out of the back room for $2,000.]


This is a heckuva lot cheaper and works just as well.

http://www.johnf-ingkerry.com/

[srm913]

That guy is too sexy for his hat.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Makes me glad I never got one.

[-=Wing_0_Walker=-]

Canada has a lot of problems. We sympathize with you.

[Petronski]

I've been reading some of your stuff in several of the threads and I like it. I almost feel like I know you. Welcome aboard.

[shellshocked]

"But the FCC says, it amounts to stealing, saying cell phone users pay good money to access the airwaves. "

And business owners pay good money to provide an environment they desire for their customers without some loud-assed cell phone user thinking if they just yell louder the other person will hear them.

[BillF]

Maybe Kristinn would buy you one? :)

[conshack]

Let's hope these things become as cheap as the cell phones are now. I'll have one with me all the time. The investment would go a long way to saving my sanity since cell phone users annoy me more and more every day.

[spinestein]

[And business owners pay good money to provide an environment they desire for their customers without some loud-assed cell phone user thinking if they just yell louder the other person will hear them.]

I think the solution to cell phone users who disturb others with excessive noise is to just start making more noise than they are. I mean just start talking very loudly (or sing if you feel up to it) right next to them so that they are unable to carry on their phone conversation.

This has the benefit of being legal and also it is just taking what they are already doing and giving more of the same back to them.

And properly done, it's really funny.