Posted on 03/13/2005 5:03:47 PM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Of course, I'll change my pary affiliation because 10% of cell phone users are ignorant and inconsiderate. What a statement.
"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!"
I usually have my ringer off. If anyone really wants to get ahold of me they will a voicemail. About the only useful reason to have a cell phone is for roadside emergencies and playing games during boring meetings and sermons.
Huh? I thought my statements were pretty clear, and I never mentioned driving. I addressed people who have no problem interfering with legal contracts of total strangers within a 100' radius wherever they go (whether the affected parties are loud/obnoxious or not), merely because they are annoyed by some cell phone users.
That is quite a statement, considering I have no idea what you're talking about. However, you can change your "pary affiliation" to whatever you want; why should I care? I just don't want you to jam my cell phone when I'm expecting a business call merely because you're the author of "Public Behavioral Propriety". Maybe you should just wear a special badge so I'll know to whom I should beg permission to whisper to my associates.
Just let me know where you live and I'll be happy to jam your cell phone(either electronically or into one of you orifices).
Guess your also assigned to the spelling patrol huh?
Yeah, and you're a crybaby. It's called "life"; get used to it, or become a Democrat.
Just responding to YOUR intelligent statement quoted here.
Unless they are coming onto your property and into your house, your right to privacy has not been invaded. You do not have the right to not be annoyed in a public place. If you are in church, tell the pastor or whomever about the problem and let him/her fix it. If they don't , don't attend that church any more go somewhere else. Same with other public places.
You do not have the right to interfere with someones phone call. You can ask them to please refrain but that is about the extent of it, legally.
Once again, if you are in a public place your privacy has not been invaded.
You're the one who sounds like a crybaby.
I beg to differ with you. All of you people who are crying about cell phone users are the ones who sound like crybabies, I will have to hang with Squeak on this one.
You are crying about people using a legal product on public property and acting as if you have some god given right to jam their conversations. This is immature and very cry babyish.
You definately all sound like liberals whining about religion and how they have the right not to see crosses, nativity scenes etc. out in public.
Grow up and be what you claim to be, conservatives and libertarians, or maybe the complainers are the DU people who hang out here, is that it? you guys are DU?
I'll bet the 911 hijackers would have loved to have a couple of these things. It would have eliminated all those pesky calls home etc.
If I were a member of the spelling patrol, I'd guess I'd have to point out "one of you orifices" should be "one of your orifices". Then, you used "your" where it should be "you're" (a conjuction of "you are"), so you clearly have difficulty using this word. Aside from that, I don't know what your problem is. You decided to address me and brought up party affiliation for some reason. So, I'll address anything I choose within those replies.
My original post was about how people are so bothered by others talking on their phones (and I am very considerate when using mine), yet they don't have a problem interfering with people who aren't loud and obnoxious, merely to satisfy their urge to punish those who offend them. That sounds like a liberal position to me.
You do not have the right to interfere with someones phone call. You can ask them to please refrain but that is about the extent of it, legally.
Once again, if you are in a public place your privacy has not been invaded.
Let me understand this correctly, it's your Constitutional right to be a pain in the a$$ to dozens of citizens because you want to discuss something on the telephone? People that object to cell phones in public are usually complaining about a cell phone user that shows absolutely no consideration for others, not the casual user who has a discussion. For some reason, some folks think they have to raise their tone considerably when speaking on a cell phone and that's the folks that are annoying. Drivers using are a real plus too(is that another Constitutional right?) All due consideration should be given to a person that wants to use a cell phone, but it sure must be a two way street.
You have no "right" to privacy in a PUBLIC place. If you wish to have privacy, look for it at home. These jammers are ILLEGAL. End of story.
I wonder if anyone has done any research into regular cordless phones use and possible brain cancer links? All I ever hear about is a wireless/brain tumor connection....
If a church or place of business wishes to install a jammer and notify the public that such a jammer is in place, I have no problem with that. I may not like it, but they would be within their right to prohibit cell phone use on their property. No problem there. What I have a problem with is a person buying an illegal jammer and interfering with the personal phone calls of another person by stealth, no less.
People who do not wish to patronize churches or businesses with jammers would certainly have the option to take their business elsewhere. However, if you go to a public place, you have to accept the fact that other people may be doing things that you find annoying. I may find a slogan on a t-shirt annoying. I may find a conversation that contradicts a viewpoint that I hold annoying. It doesn't give me the right to interfere with a lawful activity. If a business or church does it, then at least I have the option to go elsewhere.
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