No, we weren’t testing cell phones. The company was testing towertop equipment and site equipment used in the cell network. The automobiles were after hours goofing around with the engineers to see what if any validity the doomsday EMP prophecies had.
The intended use of the cell was to test things like these:
https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/cell-tower-top-antennae-877121.jpg
Oh so it wasn’t the same frequency and amplitude as a standard cell transmission. Go it. You guys were goofing around...
So they were able to reproduce the EMP spectrum and amplitude with a cell phone tower? Interesting. Sounds doable.
And you placed a car within proximity of the antenna and started it and looked for a reaction such as batteries exploding and the alternators melting. Got it.