Planes & Cell phones

Okay... so it is now well established that 800MHz operation is illegal
in aircraft, and while 1900MHz operation is not prohibited by laws, the
reality is that it doesn't work that well over 2000AGL, more or less.

Now the real question---as a backup phone for traveling, does it make
more sense to go with a "cheapie" PCS-only phone, or pay more for
Verizon and a tri-mode phone, assuming that all modes are either illegal
or impractical in the air?

I have learned much from this discussion and in researching earlier ones!

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

as a backup phone for traveling, does it make
more sense to go with a "cheapie" PCS-only phone, or pay more for
Verizon and a tri-mode phone, assuming that all modes are either illegal
or impractical in the air?


(oops)

Depends what kind of "backup" you are looking for. I use my palm VIIx and CBAV
for aviation stuff, and a full tri-mode cell phone for cell phone stuff. I
don't have a backup comm, but in an emergency I would certainly use the cell.
If I were looking for something specifically for an aviation emergency backup,
I'd get a portable nav-comm.

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

C J Campbell wrote:

I recall reading somewhere that FCC regulations against using cellular
phones in flight do not apply to digital phones.

No, the regulations differential between PCS and cellular. Digital cellular phones
still create problmes.

George Patterson
This marriage is off to a shaky start. The groom just asked the band to
play "Your cheatin' heart", and the bride just requested "Don't come home
a'drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

No, the regulations differential between PCS and cellular. Digital cellular
phones
still create problmes.


What's the difference between PCS and digital cellular?

Jos

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

"Greg Copeland" wrote in message
news

Hmm. Everything I've ever read says that maximum output is 5-watts. I'm
not saying that's right, but that has been a constant.

At 5 watts your battery would last about 5 minutes, if that.

I'm not sure how
far you could even transmit on 0.6 of watt.

With my external antenna that I use when hunting I usually see 25-30 miles
without much problem.

Teacherjh wrote:

What's the difference between PCS and digital cellular?

The main thing is the frequency set. By definition, cellphones use frequencies near
the middle of the 800 MhZ band. By definition, PCS phones are up in the 1900 MhZ
band.

George Patterson
This marriage is off to a shaky start. The groom just asked the band to
play "Your cheatin' heart", and the bride just requested "Don't come home
a'drinkin' with lovin' on your mind".

In article , Newps wrote:

"Greg Copeland" wrote in message
news

Hmm. Everything I've ever read says that maximum output is 5-watts. I'm
not saying that's right, but that has been a constant.

At 5 watts your battery would last about 5 minutes, if that.

My Nokia 6820 will give 7 hours talk time and 10 days just switched on
off a tiny battery. There's no way it's even 1 watt transmit, let alone
5 (at least under normal circumstances).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Greg Copeland wrote in message .. .
Recentingly, in another thread, cell phones and planes came up. I
thought others might be interested in these links.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1568024,00.asp
http://wirelesscabin.com/
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1...art.html?pg=12

The general theory on modern cell phones in flight, goes like this:
The FCC also has a ban because when you're in flight, you're always at
least 6-8 miles away from the nearest cell tower. You end up communicating
with too many towers and bogging down the network. One or two such calls
is tolerable, but a whole plane load moving through would disrupt the
ground-based users of the network. Remember, the farther you are from a
tower, the more power your cell phone uses to communicate with it's tower;
up to 5-watts. Worse, a plane full of 5-watt transmitters causes
terrestrial interference problems for the land cell users, in a large
radius around the plane.
snip

Back in the mid 90's I was flying to Boston from Kentucky to do aerial
photography. The company I worked for provided us with the cell
phones. On this trip I was using one of the old bag phones (I think
they put ot 3 watts?). Anyway, We were flying in a C-310 around
Ashland Ky (about 5000 feet) and we made a phone call and talked for
less than 5 minutes. Well, about 25 minutes later we made another
call, I think we were just South of Pittsburg (??). So, jump forward
to the next day. We were in Boston and were going to start a long day
of photography. We needed to call back to our boss in KY and the
phone did not work. I ended up calling the cell phone company from a
land line.

They told me that on the previous day my cell phone made a call on a
cell tower near Ashland Ky. About 25 minutes later a cell call was
placed from Pittsburg, PA. They cell company flagged this call since
they believed that NO one could travel from Ashland Ky to Pittsburg in
20-25 minutes. They believed that the cell phone ID was cloned. I
told them we were on a very important business trip and to turn back
on the phone and we would take care of the problem later. I didn't
tell them we were flying and placing the calls. ;-)

Recently I upgraded by 2 year old Cingular phone to the new GSM phone
(Motorola V400). I went flying and noticed that every few minutes I
would get a funny buzzing sounds on my Telex ANR headsets. My friend
was using traditional Non-ANR David Clarke headsets and didn't hear
any buzz. I've also noticed that if I place this GSM phone near my
computer monitor or speakers at work it would produce the same buzz.
I guess these new GSM phones will cause some strange reactions on
aviation (and ANR) frequences.

"Mark" wrote in message
om...

Recently I upgraded by 2 year old Cingular phone to the new GSM phone
(Motorola V400). I went flying and noticed that every few minutes I
would get a funny buzzing sounds on my Telex ANR headsets. My friend
was using traditional Non-ANR David Clarke headsets and didn't hear
any buzz. I've also noticed that if I place this GSM phone near my
computer monitor or speakers at work it would produce the same buzz.
I guess these new GSM phones will cause some strange reactions on
aviation (and ANR) frequences.

It's sort of a feature of GSM (no matter what frequency band) and iDEN phones to
announce themselves on whatever electronics is nearby. Folks in Europe are
pretty accustomed to hear an incoming call on their TV sets even before the
phone rings. When I used to carry my company NEXTEL phone with me, I could hear
it changing cells on my AR108 airband scanner. The moral is - try _not_ to use
TDMA-based (DAMPS, GSM, and iDEN) phones while airborne.


Dima