>
> They used the airphones, except in one case I think an actual cell
> phone was used (given they were five miles away from any nearby tower
> going at 600 MPH, it's a surprise it got through).
>
> The FCC is only recently permitting the use of cell phones after the
> door closes, subject to individual airlines' preferences. It was
> feared that the use of cell phones would mess with the plane's
> navigation systems, and it was found that they don't (after all, they
> fly near cell towers all the time, if cell phones were a problem the
> cell towers should have also been screwing up their systems. They
> haven't.).
>
> Steven Buehler | swbuehler@yahoo.com/steven@sanctuaryweb.org
I recall reading some time ago that usage of cell phones
on aircraft at flight level was a bad idea because the
signal from the phone would illuminate multiple ground
towers and the system would not know which one the
phone would register with. Perhaps this was either
bad info, or the system can now deal with this better. If you
look at a tower, you'll see that the antenna elements are
pretty big to provide high local gain, but not very tall, so that
the boundary of each tower's coverage radius stays within
a few miles. That's how I understand it anyway, IANAE
(Not an Expert)
I heard stories about guys with 1-watt HT (handi-talkie)
sets on 146 MHz in piper-cub-type aircraft, at a few thousand
feet, keying up ham repeaters 200 miles away etc
Slightly OT, I suppose ....
- Bob 2239 est 2004-02-17
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