Posted on 03/01/2006 8:16:30 AM PST by Wolfie
Study: In-flight cell calls pose risk to planes
CMU group finds danger increasing
You might want to think twice the next time you're tempted to make a call from your cell phone during an airplane flight. Or flip on your portable game player. Or work a spreadsheet on your laptop.
Besides possibly annoying fellow travelers and breaking federal regulations, you might be endangering the airplane, according to a Carnegie Mellon University study that quietly monitored transmissions on board a number of flights in the Northeast.
The study, by CMU's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, found that the use of cell phones and other portable electronic devices can interfere with the normal operation of critical airline components, even more so than previously believed.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I would be curious about how much influence Verizon had on this study. The study found their in-flight telephones harmless, but all other electronic devices were suspect. I don't know anyone who actually uses the AirPhones at those ridiculous prices.
That's what you get for copying and pasting the title, then trying to capitalize the first letter of each word, on your own. LOL. [ Just teasing. Happens to me too. ]
Difference being external antenna
Something is very fishy about this report.
Yeah, whatever.....
Puhlease, if aircraft electronics are that freakin poorly designed, they should be falling out of the sky everytime they pass over a cell tower, powerline, radio/tv station, or police car.
CMU, can go blow that smoke up someone else's $^%!
Flight 93 would have impacted the Capital building, if not for the cell phones of the passengers being used to find out that the country was under attack, and that what was happening to them was no ordinary hijacking, were the plane flies to Cuba, Libya or Lebanon.
Now that you mention it, I'm surprised that TSA doesn't confiscate cell phones in keeping with their policy to have the passengers as defenseless as possible.
I notice that Southwest Airlines has no issues and allows passengers to use GPS devices IN FLIGHT. Very cool to be able to track your position, see altitiude and look at ground features.
No problem.
But Delta and AA bans GPS devices and will get you on a no-fly list if they catch you.
True, but that's not the point. I think the study has been corrupted by Verizon.
Cell phone frequencies: 800-900 MHZ.
Yep - I can see interference out the wazoo...
It's not that simple. The cell phones and other RF devices are much, much closer to the equipment and antennas than any of the things you list. While the mobile devices generally are lower power than fixed installations, they also generally are not as well shielded as to their internal emissions, nor are their antennas as well isolated from those internal sources. These days the clock on your computer is running at a frequency in the low microwave region, and due to the shape of the waveform, has lots of higher harmonics as well.
It's not a question of the susceptibility of the aircraft electronics, but rather of out of band, or unintentional, emissions of the consumer equipment.
That said, GPS is pretty impervious to most kinds of interference, due to the nature of the signals it uses.
No there isn't anything fishy about it.
As a former computer operator and system's programmer, it has been common knowledge that radio emissions from CRT's routinely affect other components in a data center. In one example that I can personally vouch for, I know that stray radio signals from these tubes actually set off the alarms on a nearby electrical panel (I cannot, hwoever, describe the machanism, but it had something to do with radio freqeuncies interfering with the flow of information from the panel to the central control system, a wireless system).
In another example, three years ago when I was placed in a Cardiac Telemetry Ward in a local hospital (all the patients were hooked up to portable EKG units, about the size of a steno pad, taped to their chests), the use of cell phones, PDA's and blackberries was strictly forbidden.
I also can recall (dimly) that the brouhaha over stray electronic signals started way back with the first Airbus jumbo jets and the sensitivity of the "fly-by-wire" system.
None of this is new.
However, I believe the best result to be achieved from these kinds of studies is to shut up rude and inconsiderate people who use their cellphones loudly and abundantly. Nothing like taking a trans-Atlantic flight sitting next to an idiot who believes his conversation can't be heard when he's shouting over the normal cabin noise. Few things are as annoying as trying to sleep or otherwise relax on a long trip only toi be interrupted by several ringtones running the gamut from Beethoven's Fifth to something resembling a Klaxon Horn sounding General Quarters.
Business people working on time critical projects.
This study is suspect.
Why don't we have automobiles failing with thier computers, boats don't have GPS failures.
"if aircraft electronics are that freakin poorly designed, they should be falling out of the sky everytime they pass over a cell tower, powerline, radio/tv station, or police car."
You're so right...the RF field from a 5 million watt TV tower within one mile is so much stronger than the little sub-one watt signal from a cell phone.
Follow the $$$
How many CAT IIIc approaches have you flown in your car while using your cellphone?
My guess is that Verizon has recently made a big donation to Carnegie-Mellon.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
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