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Author Topic: Mobile 'phone blockers Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-18-2003 02:30 PM                        I know I’ve whined about this many times before, but please beg my indulgence one more time – I’ve now been pushed over the edge. I spend on average 7-8 hours per week commuting on long-distance trains. I really need that time to get work done – it’s the difference between having to hit the computer when I get home and being able to switch off (both it and me) for a couple of hours before bedtime. For that reason I usually sit in the ‘no mobile ‘phones’ carriage in order to try and get some peace and quiet to concentrate (unless I’m expecting a call and have to leave mine switched on). However, the ‘no mobiles’ rule has increasingly been ignored for a long time now by yobbish passengers who take the attitude that rules don’t apply to them. After a particularly nasty trip in which I was actually spat at for asking someone very politely to at least switch their ‘phone onto silent (he was right opposite me making a continuous ‘bleep-bleep-bleep’ writing text messages), I wrote and complained to the train company, GNER. I’ve just had their reply: words to the effect that enforcing this rule is not a priority for them and that they don’t propose to do anything much about it. Sod you, GNER, if you won’t take action to enforce your own rules, then I bloody well will. So my question is this. Does anyone know if it’s possible to buy- and if so where from - a battery-operated device which would fit in a pocket or bag, and which, when switched on, will block all mobile ‘phone signals within a given radius (five yards should do the job nicely)? Unless there are health and safety implications (e.g. it could interfere with pacemakers), I’ve reached the point where I really couldn’t give a four-x whether it’s legal or not. I just want to get my own back on the bastards. There are 10 other carriages in those trains where no-one has a problem with mobiles, but no, the f---ers have to make my life hell with them. Besides, it’s not like someone’s going to think ‘…strange… my mobile won’t work. Let’s search that bloke sitting four rows away.’ I know that you can buy wall-mounted, mains operated signal blockers and that they were used in some restaurants until it was discovered that they also interfered with radio and TV reception over quite a long distance and were banned as a result. It’s probably wishful thinking on my part, but if it’s possible to buy something which will temporarily disable any mobile ‘phones situated near me for the duration of the journey, it would be my must-have gadget of all time.  |  IP: Logged John Scott Master Film Handler Posts: 252 From: Oakdale, MN, USA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-18-2003 04:49 PM                     I don't know about the UK, but in the US such a device would be illegal.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 03-18-2003 05:00 PM                     Hide a Tesla Coil in your pocket, then ask the dude if you can borrow his phone. Remove Tesla coil from your pocket, and zap it while he is not looking. Actually, I had one of those "stun" devices. I was playing with it while sitting next to the phone. When I threw the switch, the electronic answering machine on my phone had a very bad day - and bad enough where I had to buy a new one. Three feet away was enough to do the job.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-19-2003 02:04 AM                        That would be very satisfying in the short term, but sadly would probably have me on a charge of criminal damage soon afterwards... I was just wondering if it was possible to get something which would simply make 'em go somewhere else if they want to make a 'phone call. But I suppose that if there were, loads of people would have them and there'd be no reception anywhere.  |  IP: Logged Jean-Michel Grin Expert Film Handler Posts: 222 From: Geneva & Lausanne, Switzerland Registered: Jul 2002 posted 03-19-2003 03:16 AM                        Leo, I've saw on Canford UK catalog an equipement who detect the rado frequencies emmited by a cellular phone. This unit coul be wall mounted at the entrance of the theater, and if a customer pass close of the detector, a recordred message say: "Please Switch Your phone Off " For me I ever switched off the ringtone off my cellular phone, and puted it in "vibra" mode It's funny in trains or another public transports ways, anytime a cellular phone ringing, to see all peoples loking it own phone One alternative to this disagrement: just buy ears protections as Oro-Pax or Quies-ball and wear it... Bye, P.S. Sorry for my weak English !  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 03-19-2003 03:26 AM                     Leo, fart loudly, take a newspaper and wave it in his/her direction, belch, sneeze, cough, and talk loudy to yourself. Verbally ask yourself questions, then answer yourself. Mumble something about the "Boogie Man" and stare at the offender intensley. That should do it... Chances are, you'll vacate the whole coach. This reminds me of how I got around a busy Christmas shopping season several times. I did that by wearing the grubbiest smelliest grease filled cloths you could imagine. As I walked around, a hole just automatically opened up in the crowd so I was able to pass through it with no problem whatsoever.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-20-2003 03:50 AM                        Well I eventually managed to find the ideal object here. Ideal in every way except one - £359. Even my hatred of mobile-touting yobs doesn't go as deep as to shell out that much. If it were say, fifty quid or less I'd buy one like a shot, though.  |  IP: Logged Mike Rendall Film Handler Posts: 78 From: Southampton, Hampshire, UK Registered: Nov 2002 posted 03-20-2003 12:23 PM                     Dr Leo.. I think this may be more in the price range : Mobile phone jammer It does say though that it is not available for use in the UK! Know any europeans? Mike  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 03-21-2003 03:13 AM                        From the FAQ... quote: No, it is not illegal to purchase or own a Wave-Shield in the UK. The problem is in actually using one, even though the Wave-Shield RF signal doesn't penetrate brick walls easily. If you are caught using a cellular phone jammer in the UK you could be open to prosecution. We have our jammers built and tested outside of the UK where we are not in breech of any law. HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS OUR POLICY NOT TO SUPPLY THIS PRODUCT TO ANY EU DESTINATION INCLUDING THE UK. ORDERS RECEIVED IN CONTRAVENTION TO THIS POLICY WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY REJECTED. So I would have to know someone in Switzerland, the Faroe Islands or another European country which is not in the EU. Furthermore, even if they then sent it back to me it could be caught at customs. It's f---ing annoying that these things are illegal. I can see the logic, though - some irresponsible mobile-haters would use them in areas (including public places) where people are quite entitled to use mobiles (I was only intending to use them in areas where they are explicitly not allowed), and if the jammers were easily available the law would become almost impossible to enforce. I've calmed down a bit now, but I still find the problem really annoying...  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 04-15-2006 07:46 PM                 It has been 1121 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Jim Bedford Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 597 From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-15-2006 07:46 PM                        There are close to a dozen threads on Film-Tech about cell phones, jamming and blocking them. Here's a wall coating type product that purports to block cell phone signals NaturalNano rather than jam them (the illegality of jamming having been well established). Blocking seems to be a legal option and these guys are bending over backwards to accommodate the issue of communications for emergency service people that has divided so many people who have opinions on the issue. Seems like they're in the early fishing stage for a market and support. Has anyone heard anything about them or any other companies who are trying some type of blocking system?  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 04-15-2006 08:15 PM                        The new Redrock Station Casino here has installed active cell phone and wifi jamming in the secure areas of the casino "cage". No wireless anything in these areas of the building. All approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the State Gaming Control Board. We Nevadans couldn't care less what the FCC thinks of this.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-16-2006 12:13 AM                     Even if a theater can manage to block out the cellphone signals they cannot get rid of the other problem: light pollution from phones. Newer phones have LCD and OLED color screens damned near as bright as a full sized notebook computer. I swear it seems like most mobile phone users have obsessive compulsive disorder in checking their phones all the time. They flip open the phone in the dark theater and it is like turning on a flashlight. When I see this, I want to take my 44 oz. oil-drum sized cup of Mr. Pibb and throw it at their head with the severity of a Nolan Ryan fastball high-heat pitch. People, please leave the damned phone in the car!!! Before anyone calls me hypocritical on this, I have managed to do just that: leave a mobile phone in my vehicle during "an emergency." I was in Aurora, CO checking out an Austin Powers sequel with Joe Redifer at a theater where he used to work. My father gave me a phone to carry, but I deliberately left it in my truck. After the show, we noticed a pretty severe thunderstorm off to the SSW. It turned out that storm had dropped a tornado in a housing construction development not far from that theater. My father left 5 calls on the phone. He was pissed I didn't have the phone on me. What good would having the phone have done? If anything, I was better off staying in the theater rather than panicking and running out into the parking lot where I could have been sucked up into the cloud or pulverized by flying cars. I will not, under any circumstances, take a cell phone into a theater. Period. Never.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 04-16-2006 08:03 AM                        I'll take mine with me if I am working in the booth or other non-public area. If I attend a showing, I leave it in the car since I want to be entertained. Any calls received will be there when I exit. Maybe we should "check 'em at the door"......like guns in the old West! Louis  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 01-02-2010 02:47 PM                 It has been 1357 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged

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