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View Full Version : Use of Mobile phones in air..


Lan Ding Gere
9th Jul 2002, 15:41
Guys,

Seeing as this forum is a sea of knowledge I thought you guys might be able to help me again. I'm not fick or anyfink, but I would like to have the expert advise and confirm what is correct.

I remember reading somewhere (I think it was in some bumph that Virgin produced), that "Virgin" is or will be the first Airline to introduce th use of mobile phones in flight.

Is this correct and what inpact do mobile phones have to the comms ?

LDG

RadarContact
9th Jul 2002, 17:38
Are you sure they want to introduce the use of regular mobile phones? Because they become pretty useless when beyond certain heights (reception range). Maybe they want to install an aircraft-integrated phone service, which would connect via sattelite.
But this would mean the note you read would have to be of some age for the claim of being the first to be valid... :)

Mobile phones do have an impact on the comm equipment and sometimes even on electronics, depending on the location of the phone and type of aircraft. I've had some very strange fuel amount readings once and several cases of the typical beeping noise in my headset. You do sometimes hear it in other's transmissions, too.

Sharjah Night Shift
9th Jul 2002, 18:17
I read somewhere it was to be an arrangement where incomming calls to a mobile phone could be diverted to the phone in your seat.

Say again s l o w l y
11th Jul 2002, 00:11
The main problem with modern mobiles is that as they get furter away from an aerial/base station, they increase their power output. If there are enough phones on and they are sufficiently far away to send out lots of power, but NOT far enough away to cut themselves off, this could interfere with a/c systems.
Many mobile companies have suggested having a base station on the aircraft itself, this would mean that the power transmitted from the mobile would be dramatically reduced.

An even neater solution being bandied about is a use for bluetooth equipped mobiles. If you have a bluetooth phone and a base station it will work as well as having a normal mobile mast on the plane, BUT a bluetooth signal has something like 10,000X less power than a normal mobile signal. Problem solved. Just got to shell out for a new phone. Again!!

Phones can have an effect on (especially) comm signals. But the danger of them is over-rated. Any properly insulated modern avionics system should NOT be affected hugely. The signals flying around the ether from a myriad of sources would have to affect the a/c too. Mobiles are easy to blame, but as yet no-one has seemingly been able to reproduce the effects supposedly caused by mobiles. Any way has nobody heard of FM immune avionics!!