"To jam or not to jam "

A cell phone is licensed, it operates under the license of the cellular provider in the area. In fact the cellular provider is the control operator, not you. I forget where in the regs taht is, but cellular phones are in face licensed.

 

I see what you're trying to say, but the horse race scenario won't fly. Bets can not be placed once the horses have left the post. Modern OTB equipment prevents post dating 100% of the time.

 

Hmm, while I've not been to Vegas, I can say I've been in other casinos and if it were possible and being done in Vegas, I'm sure it'd be done at least somewhere else. And saying that I think it's urban legend /bs.

I've seen poor coverage inside a casino, but it's a far cry from being jammed.

Unless you have some proof...

And no one seems to have mentioned how they actually trigger the IEDs. Without saying more, using the argument of jamming to prevent a secondary is just BS.

 

Cel phones are not Part 15 devices. They are licensed users of the spectrum, even though a license is not issued to individual users.

 

To all cell phone haters:

Someday someone will have to explain to me why its ok to hate cell phones? So you don't like hearing someone else's conversation when you're standing in line at McD's?

Riddle me this, batmen: what's the difference between a dude talking on a cell phone and a dude talking to his buddy standing right next to him?
Answer: cell phone haters would rather hear both sides of the conversation because they're nosy twits.

Or are you going to make talking in line punishable with the swing of with a baseball bat?

There are some really boneheaded comments on this thread. I figured I'd call some of you out on that. In case you haven't noticed, America is still a free country. If you don't like hearing other people talk then you should probably not be talking yourself - fair is fair after all, right?

 

I know and understand that once the horses have left the gate, you cannot post a bet. I didn't say it had to make sense; I'm saying that's how it is in a casino. It may or may not be possible, but you cannot use a cell phone in a Sports Book. Casinos have their own special logic, and they are not open to discussion. It is THEIR rules, and yours are of no interest to them. They won't reason with you, and you can't reason with them. It's their way or... well, it's their way. Period.

Every rule in a casino is there because once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, someone managed to swindle the casino out of a dollar. Casinos do not take kindly to such schemes, and they institute iron-clad rules to prevent it from every happening again. Ever. No matter how unlikely it might be to reoccur, they block it before it happens. And you can't make phone calls out of a Sports Book. They won't tolerate it.

 

well from my understanding of signal jamming.(and that is very little)
if one would want to jam a signal it would only TX on said frequency.

now i just know that someone is going to attack me because i have a vanity call and i am a new ham.


but just remember it is not the time i have spent as a ham it is the quality of the service i do as a ham that counts.

 

Not so. In the case of cellphones, the mobile handset gets it's instructions (rx freq., tx freq., power, etc) from the land station. That's why the cellphone polls the land station periodically, even when not in use. Using this characteristic of the cellphone network, brute force jamming is not required. You only have to impersonate a land station and give the mobile faulty instructions. This, of course, is greatly oversimplified but it gets the idea across.

N4XTS, finally a voice of reason in the "wilderness"! You might want to emphasize the word "grave", however.

 

In some areas of Wyoming the cell provider itself does a good job of 'jamming'.

The other day, I had FULL service from the local provider - couldn't make a call. No 911, no text, no incoming, no outgoing... nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch.

Having a competitors phone handy, their network worked like a champ... called the non-working cell company's tech support. Typical runaround routine "it's your phone, or some other lame excuse."

FULL service, not 3 bars, not two... all four.

I wasn't without communications, 2meter ham HT, BN work radio, competitor's cell phone... so if there was a problem, but not having the three other backup forms of communicae, I'd have been SOL for roughly 8 hours till it got fixed.

I think it even says in your phone handbook or network agreement that there might be a time where you can't make 911 calls on a cell: due to network issues, lack of coverage, etc, etc..

Unless they can make cells as reliable as good ol' copper hardwired phones, the option to jam if necessary should be on the table.

While I am not for more government control of my life, Jamming should be limited to the areas that was posted already - courthouses, jury rooms, ..and I can't remember the other option.

 

Well put ~~ No reason IMO that State and trained local Government agencies should not have these --- Why the Fed only??? Lives can and will be saved by allowing all correct trained agencies to use them!

 

The most important reason to jam has been missed!

All cars should have built in jammers that only allow 911 to be dialed so people would start paying attention to driving (that is what you are supposed to do behind the wheel). Yes, some hams probably could compete with some cell phone talkers, but many set the mic down when listening and it is a one way at a time, not duplex like in a cellphone and ham radio operators do not yak from get in to get out of the car like cell phone users.

I watched a cellphone user roll through a stop sign, they had the phone on their left ear, they looked right but didn't look left and guess what happened. The ear that the cellphone in on is the blind side of that driver. So if you approach an intersection and see a yakker on a cellphone and they are using the cellphone on the same side of their head that you are on, they don't see you.

cellphone jammers in theaters and restaurants, I'm for them. Most that I have seen advertised in foreign countries only are good for 30 feet or so. That would silence a theater. If there were an emergency, it is only a few steps to the hall where the signal would return. It would be nice to watch a movie without someone talking or the bright display of the phone distracting you from the movie.

 

I don't think it's intentional. If you have ever worked around the stuff in a place like that, the noise floor is incredible.

I wouldn't worry about the FCC getting involved in a case of jamming. What I do think there is merit in is the level of radiation that exceeds part 15.

When I last went to NAB, a couple friends and I took our HT dualbanders with us to stay in touch. Once I hit the casino area, there were NO usable frequencies in 2 meter or 70 cm. The noise floor was incredible. Once you're outside the building and on the strip, the noise tames down a bit, but it still opens up an HT if you're set carrier only.

 

Jamming is a very well developed art at this point gentlemen!

And since at present only Federal agencies are allowed to buy and use the equipment it is not a problem!

The ? is should this be expanded to state and local government agencies.

Naturally the users would have to be trained and certified with the equipment and then and only then they too could thwart off a potential threat.

Many lives could and would be saved. Ask any one who has served in Iraq as of late and they will tell you first hand of the great job these jammers perform.

As far as the E911 argument for the short amount of time required to deal with a real threat vs the chance of a medical emergency needing cellular E911 connection it is a trade off ~~ but really are we so naive as to say that one could not find a nearby landline to make the call if you just happened to be near the site of a bomb threat?

The life that might be saved might just be your own from a bomb going off!

I think the guy having the heart attack near the potential bomb incident will still have a successful landline E911 call get through for him.

Really the cell phone did not even exist 30 years ago and we still got E911 calls through. Heck that was one of the main reasons for autopatch on repeaters in the old days!

Now with everyone having cell phones I do not do the phone patch near as often to 911 as I used to years ago. No need since I see cell phones up against ears everywhere at accidents these days.

I think a little education on the HIGH TECH DESIGN OF THE CURRENT PRODUCTION JAMMERS IS IN ORDER ~~ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ~~

When the Presidential Convoy rolls through I can tell you no one is talking on their cell phones for a 15 mile radius not to mention RF on all the bands and spectrum.

That is why DX in DC is so difficult !!! LOL JK

 

Jamming cell phones as a detriment to using the cell phone as a detonator is beyond ridiculous.
There are lots of ways to trigger a device and there is no way of knowing how a device will be triggered. A jamming device for cellphones would cause more problems than solutions. Police and and Fire workers use cell phones more than their radios in many situations.
A device can be easily built with more than one method of detonation including one that can detect jamming devices.
Sorry, but a cb radio, or radio in any band at all could be used to trigger a device, even a small vhf/uhf ham radio working through a repeater.

KB7HK

 

A considerably simpler solution for theaters, etc, not requiring any new law
might be this:

Electromagnetic Field Shielding Paint
Copper Particle Conductivity in a Water Based Paint

A sprayable, brushable, or rollable conductive metallic coating using a specially formulated copper as the conductive agent for superior performance in electric field and RF shielding.
Attenuation: more than 75 dB from 1 MHz to 1 GHz.

http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html

Expensive now, but if sales volume were to increase with popularity....