[Tfug] cell phones, bluetooth and airplanes (another question)

[Christopher Robbins]

On 8/15/06, Richard Rohrdanz <rrohrdanz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > While this makes going online with my phone easier, imagine a flight
> full
> > of
> > people on cell phones...
> >
> > "Can you hear me now? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"
>
>
> This is a bit off topic but...
> I have a theory about why people talk so loudly on cell phones. In order
> to
> save the battery, cell phone manufacturers severely limit the feedback you
> get through the earpiece when you talk into the phone. This makes people
> think that they are not talking loudly enough so they talk louder.
> Back on topic... sort of.
>
> The airlines, through the FAA, don't just ban transmitters like Bluetooth,
> they also ban portable radios of all kinds. The reason is that built into
> each radio is an oscillator that creates a signal (at very low power and
> one
> that is intended to stay within the radio's chassis) that is 455Khz away
> from the station that you are trying to receive. The resulting signal is
> easier to handle.
>
> As a pilot, private not commercial, I have also been concerned with
> electronic interference affecting the instruments in my plane. I have used
> my GPS (Bluetooth), my PDA and a cell phone with no problems in flight.
> Some
> of the cheaper electronics may not adhere to published and accepted
> standards as well as they should and could cause problems. Some months ago
> I
> visited a web site (sorry, I don't have the URL now) that carried pilot
> reports of interference on airlines from electronic devices in the cabin.
> In
> a couple of cases flight attendants discovered the violators (using
> GameBoys), had them turn off the devices and the interference


Could shielding the avionics prevent this type of interference? When I first
read about Boeing's wifi technology (still digging), they had talked about
protecting the instrumentation by some sort of shielding...With the
instruments being obviously critical, why the hell isn't this standard on
most planes?

(Should have stuck around EE :) )

-Chris


-- 
Chris Robbins
Dept. of English Technical Support
http://www.homerengineeringcorp.net