Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: New aviation rules
From: John Collier <jbcollier@powersurfr.com>
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 07:08:40 -0600

I very loosely follow the aviation scene and there have been hard reports of
cell phone usage causing problems with on board electronics.

John Collier

> From: Nathan Wajsman <wajsman@webshuttle.ch>
> 
> Brian,
> 
> As far as I know, modern cellphones would not interfere with navigation of a
> modern plane. The prohibition is motivated by three factors:
> 
> 1) tradition/caution: maybe they could interfere, let us ban them just in
> case
> 2) profit: the in-flight satellite phones are very profitable for the
> airlines
> 3) considerations on the ground: because a plane moves so fast, there could
> be problems with the hand-off of the call from one cell to the next. It
> could result in two cells being "occupied" by one cellphone at the same
> time. If enough people did this, it could cause capacity problems on the
> cellular network. For this reason cellular operators support the ban.
> 
> Nathan
> 
>> Brian Reid wrote:
>> 
>> I spent many years working for a company that designed, built, and sold
>> laptop computers. One of the most important qualities of a laptop is
>> battery life. If you can make your laptop last 10% longer than the
>> competition's, it will sell better. Consumer magazines rate laptops
>> according to how long they run on a charge. And the holy grail of laptop
>> computers is to be able to run LAX-JFK on one battery.
>> 
>> If a laptop computer loses energy to electromagnetic radiation, that
>> energy is not available to power the computer. For this reason, the
>> companies that design laptops spend extraordinary amounts of time and
>> money testing and reducing the RF radiation from the computers, not
>> because some government agency makes them, not because it will be kinder
>> to airplanes, but because it will be more profitable.
>> 
>> For this reason I am quite certain that laptop computers do not bother
>> navigation equipment. I have no knowledge of cell phones, but their
>> purpose is to transmit RF signals, so this economic argument would not
>> apply.
>>

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Replies: Reply from Dan Cardish <dcardish@sympatico.ca> (RE: [Leica] Re: New aviation rules)