On Oct 14, 2007, at 10:04 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Well, maybe. How about 40 people talking on cell phones? > > When I first set up my network, my upstairs neighbor said his > radio was > affected. He took a while to figure it out. I think he may have > been using his > radio on battery. Suddenly he had static. He even got a guy out > from PG&E who > went around the building with some equipment and pinpointed my > condo as the > thing that was putting out electricity/frequencies (I wasn't here > so not sure > what he said). > > I had my router very up near the ceiling on top of a high bookcase > so that > the laptop in the den could pick up the signal and be hooked into > my network. > Rather than debate the whole issue I disconnected my network. His > static > stopped. OTOH, I had a refrigerator that soon went on the fritz > and had to get a > new one. Before it went on the fritz I had determined it was > interfering with > the wireless signal between my router and laptop. That is why I > placed the > router high, so the line of sight would be above the refrigerator. > > Now I have it much lower on a file cabinet, and I have a little > paper corner > covered in foil stuck on the aerial to direct the signal. > > No complaints from the neighbor. But I also have a new > refrigerator too. > > I am not so sure, Godfrey. A wireless signal can be disrupted > pretty easily > (all I have to do is close a door in between and the signal will > become too > weak to have my laptop hook into the network). So who's to say > that can't work > in reverse, and it cannot disrupt other things?
Aircraft communications happen on a completely different set of frequencies and have their antennae external to the fuselage of the aircraft. They use shielded and regulated power systems, antenna couplings, etc etc. As the pilot said, if the comm/nav systems were so fragile that the operation of passenger hand-held devices could disrupt them, that plane should not be legal to fly. Most consumer wireless/cell phone/home entertainment stuff is easily disrupted because a) it is very low power, b) it has very cheap and insensitive, low gain antennae, and c) it ain't all that well made neither. Most of the FCC regulations concerning RF noise on consumer devices have more to do with reducing customer dissatisfaction due to a noisy stereo broadcast than with disrupting anything significant in way of communications. ;-) G -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
