How do you detect a mobile phone in the cabin?

[NWSRG]

Folks,

Was on a flight today where the Captain announced that "someone has a Nokia 6320i on in the cabin..."

Now, did he pick this up on his own phone via bluetooth, was he chancing his arm in knowing a phone was on and guessing the type, or can you genuinely detect a mobile down to type?

What sort of equipment in the cockpit can detect this?

Much curious, answers appreciated :)

[Genghis the Engineer]

Either something bluetooth is picking it up, or more likely he's bluffing to get people to double-check. Nice line!

G

[dontpressthat]

Nwsrg...
As far as I know (and Id put a b***ock on it) the only way chief could have known the type of fone offending down the the back is through a cheeky bluetooth scan.. Theres no way anybody could possibly know what phone or network was active... simply set your bluetooth id to, 'Turn ya fone off skipper' and see if the shout on the PA reflects that...

Only joking.. Fones off in dep lounge is the safest bet.
DPT

[jetrat]

his pda would be able to pick it up too, so give the guy the benefit, so can his laptop. unless the phone owner changed his phone name, exact model number normally appears.

[Denti]

Our skippers get a pda with phone function as company issued cell phone so most of them have it on throughout the flight with phone function disabled since they have to have it on during turnaround and those beasts need way to much time to boot if you switch them off completely. Easy to do a quick bluetooth scan with it if you're suspicious.

[Superpilot]

I once done a BT scan on an aircraft, and to my shock discovered **TerrorZone** :}

[alexban]

hey,I never thought about this before...:ok:
I'll do a bluetooth scan tomorrow on my PDA ,maybe I'll catch some 'bad' pax...give them a scare...brrrr..

[Captain Airclues]

Near the entrance to Frimley Park Hospital there is a Cellphone Detector on the wall. If someone walks past it with their phone switched on it issues a verbal warning. If mobile phones really are a problem on aircraft then it wouldn't be too difficult to install a similar device.

Airclues

[PAXboy]

Bear in mind that BlueTooth has a typical range of 10 metres. So, if he was using a BT scan, then the offending unit was probably someone in the first few rows. However, just saying a specific model number would be sufficient as there is bound to be a Nokia somewhere and the model number does not matter a great deal. Either way - smart move.

[Three Blades]

I once flew with Egypt Air where the hosty had a gadget the size of a very small phone that indicated to here when a live mobile phone was near. She simply went down the aisle and told 3 people to turn their phones off.
How come I have never seen this anywhere else as it seems a simple solution ?

[BOAC]

It is much more fun to send a bt message to the offender:)

[steamchicken]

Nokia 6230i, I hope. Or else the skipper really was bluffing.

A more serious detector would need to monitor the 850, 900, 1800, 1900 and 2100MHz bands (not to mention weird yank things in the 450s)...