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Author Topic: Cell phone jammer Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-21-2002 03:45 PM                        Has anyone noted the Israeli products that are supposed to jam cell phones within a limited range? They apparently are not legal in the States, but I'm wondering if there's an "underground" market for this kind of stuff. Has anyone ever seen/used/been affected by one of these in a theatre? Seems like an obvious application. How about any efforts to legalize this kind of technology over here?.. or do the cell companies have too much of a lock on it? Last I saw, they were using arguments like "a person couldn't call 911 (from inside a theatre?) if jammers were allowed." Just curious.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-21-2002 05:49 PM                        Great idea. How would they know if they had a "jammed" cell phone or just couldn't get survice. I don't believe the cell service providers guarantee service, do they? Maybe you could use a small yagi antenna to make the jamming directional. I love it  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 12-21-2002 11:52 PM                     We actually just went through this. It is illegal to block cell phone reception in the US. This is because companies (Sprint, Verizon, etc.) lease frequency 'space' and it is theirs to use. If you operate a cell phone jammer, you are infringing on their part of the spectrum. It does not matter if you own the property. A jammer can not even be shipped to the US.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-22-2002 01:16 AM                    No, it's illegal to operate an unlicensed transmitter on those (and most) frequencies which is what a jammer is. No law against passively blocking reception if there is a way to do that. Faraday cage techniques perhaps?  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 12-22-2002 02:03 PM                        Actually, when I worked for Muvico Theatres, we tested these for the Government. At the Muvico Paradise 24 we tested them for one week as part of a government survey.They worked pretty well. However, there are legal ramifications - as previously stated.Not to mention the biggest aspect of it - doctors, policemen, and government agents who need to have their cell on them for emergencies. The FCC was the group that was testing the units. The test went very well - but we will never see them in movie theatres.  |  IP: Logged Jeffry L. Johnson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 809 From: Cleveland, Ohio, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 12-22-2002 02:20 PM                        Check the Ground Level forum. I just bumped a thread on this topic.  |  IP: Logged Jason Black Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1723 From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 12-22-2002 07:58 PM                        Ya know, the more I think about it the stronger I feel about this situation. If someone is soooo damn important that they must have mobile tracking device on them 24/7, they shouldn't be in a theatre in the first place! Public yakkers on cell phones just plain piss me off! I hate being next to "that guy/girl" who has to tell their phonemate what's going on in their life while at the register trying to pay (all while holding up the line and pissing everyone else off). And, invariably, that person looks at everyone else as if to say "What? what are you looking at?" I admit, I carry my cell nearly everywhere, but I will not take a call while in a public place in view/earshot of others. It's plain rude and tasteless. Plus, what business is it of anyone else's what I'm talking about? Cell phones should be able to be blocked in actual auditoriums. I think people have been numbed enough to allow them in common areas like the lobby, restrooms, etc. but be damned if they should have to pay to listen to some jerk yakking in during the presentation!  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-22-2002 08:19 PM                        Well, I did some more looking around & found a lot more articles about these things. Since the last time I looked, a US-based advocacy group has kicked in, and most media "sound bytes" seem to track back to this group and its spokesman. While other countries have found ways to make use of these things without major problems, they haven't been legalized in the 'states... and this group is pretty sure they won't be. As with all things political, this group has found a narrow, single-minded hook to push continued banning of cell jammers. The idea that people need to be able to make and receive emergency calls, even in a hostile environment like a theatre. The fact that theatres have wired phones doesn't matter to them. As for emergency personnel, firemen don't use cell phones to alert them, and unless they've stopped, doctors used to have pagers... which would not be affected by a cell jammer. It seems a pretty thin argument, since legal passive devices would cause the same effect, and nobody's really griping muchy about the risk to life and limb caused by that technology. One article had it right on, as far as I can tell. The cell phone industry has spent billions in this country to get control of spectrum. In light of technological offerings that lag behind countries like Japan, competition from other cell companies and a sluggish market caused in part by overbuilding, the last thing these companies want to see is technology that prevents their customers from using as much billable airtime as possible. If one industry could get a toe-hold in, like theatres, schools, hospitals, airlines, etc... the rest would probably follow pretty quickly. Another thing that seems interesting is that there appears to be a pretty healthy underground market in these things. Tracking their use is difficult because the users don't seem to be able to tell the difference between passive or active jamming, and therefore do not file complaints with the FCC, which admits to not having ever raided an illegal jamming site. There was an article that mentioned technology that would allow an outside signal to put nearby cell phones into vibrate mode, but it said that few manufacturers had been inclined to add it to their products. What we need is Maxwell Smart's "cone of silence"!!  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-22-2002 09:44 PM                     Interesting teaser story about a cell phone blocking product: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/computers/article/0,12543,356706,00.html Would this affect pagers as well? radio mics?  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-22-2002 10:07 PM                        quote: From David McC... Would this affect pagers as well? radio mics? As they describe the panels, some pagers could be affected... probably ones that run in the 900 meg range. Pagers that run on frequencies between around 31 megs up to the 450 meg UHF bands probably would be OK. Most wireless mics I've seen ran on frequencies between 49 megs and 450. If they're putting them into the 900 meg bands and you tried one in a room with this "microwave absorbing" stuff in the walls, you might not be able to put the mic and receiver in different rooms without losing the signal. You probably could run them in the same room, though.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-22-2002 11:12 PM                     Well I for one are infavor of blocking them in public places A policemens/ doctors right for emergancy calls is frankly less important than my enjoyment of the entertainment I paid for. If they are on call then stay at home they are being paid to be on call Actually there may be a test case over air right coming up in canada that the government doesn't own air rights over private property  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 12-23-2002 05:33 AM                        quote: ... from Gordon McL: ...Actually there may be a test case over air right coming up in canada that the government doesn't own air rights over private property. That will be interesting. We apparently can install passive devices to flummox a cell phone. We also appear to be quite capable of running enough fluorescent lights and computerized equipment to render most AM radios useless in many buildings... but we can't legally run active devices to keep cell phones at bay.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-23-2002 08:24 AM                    I love the one that looks like a cell phone.  |  IP: Logged Greg Mueller Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1687 From: Port Gamble, WA Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-23-2002 09:26 AM                        I have a friend who is a cardiologist and is on call constantly. He gave up on cell phones and went back to his pager because the phone was so unreliable. (even in good reception areas) My opinion would be that the people who are using the doctor/fireman excuse as an argument are somehow tied and/or funded by the cell phone companies (geez I'm starting to sound like Charlie Everett)  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Worthing Master Film Handler Posts: 384 From: Hereford, UK Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-23-2002 09:34 AM                     The reason they are banned are that they can interfere with electronic devices like Hearing aids & more importantly Pace Makers. There is a on the wall detector that I looked in to a few years ago that was a passive system that detected a Cell phone. This can be switched to a sign that flashes TURN OFF YOUR PHONE in red neon. The system is in use in some UK Hospitals where it is required to turn phones off.  |  IP: Logged

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