Originally Posted by
greenbroker
On a recent Ryanair flight I was told to turn my digital pocket camera off during take-off as it was electronic. I was surprised or ignorant.
Does electronic mean hearing aids, quartz watches, mp3 players, hand-held games machines?
Certainly mp3 players and games machines were mentioned as well on my last flight.
I can understand banning the use of mobiles and laptops, as I regard them as transmission devices.
These were also mentioned for use once the seat belt lights were off
provided their wireless functions were turned OFF.
The irony of it all is that mobiles will be allowed eventually.
True but wrong at the same time.
You will find other information on prune and net. I understand that in-flight use will be permitted on aircraft that have been modified. A mobile will transmit at high power until it can hand shake with a cooperative base station. It will usuallu lock on to the strongest signal and at ground level will have few stations to access and switch in relatively slow time. In an aircraft a mobile will be able to handshake with far more base stations and at 480 kts will be hopping from one to another every minute or less.
Inflight use will be limited to aircraft that have their own base station. The mobile will search and lock on to the nearest, ie in the aircraft. The intergrated aircraft transceiver will then connect the call. Quite different from a free mobile doing an open search.