Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: jad@dayton.dhdsc.mn.org (J. Deters) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular Telephone Causes Airline Fire Alarm Message-ID: Date: 31 Aug 89 15:05:19 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: jad@dayton.UUCP (J. Deters) Organization: Terrapin Transit Authority Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 339, message 4 of 8 In article OLE@csli.stanford.edu (Ole J. Jacobsen) writes: >First, the airlines are parnanoid about any electrical device which "can cause >interference to avionic systems" and while their fear may be largely >unfounded, they have little or no sense of humor about it. I even know of an >airline in the UK which forbids the use of Walkmans for the same reason. >(Yes, it is pretty bogus). I remember reading the sheet that came with my Sony Discman that came with the standard FCC disclaimer of "WARNING: This equipment radiates and uses RF energy..." It's just a CPU that's grinding out the tunes in there, and it's capable of emitting RF just like any other digital device. Taking off over a freeway with someone's poorly maintained automobile ignition is like flying over a spark-gap transmitter. Many frequencies with multiple harmonics, and more powerful than most C.B.'s. If they are as overly sensitive to stray RF as their paranoia indicates, I sure don't want to fly their airline! -j J. Deters - jad@dayton.DHDSC.MN.ORG john@jaded.DHDSC.MN.ORG