Cell Phones

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by surenderer, Jan 18, 2005.

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  1. surenderer Registered Senior Member

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    Sup Guys,

    I am by no means an expert on cell phones but can someone here tell me if it's true that cell phones are near impossible to use above 8000 feet in an airplane?....thnx in advance
     
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  3. Xko Registered Senior Member

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    See here
     
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  5. surenderer Registered Senior Member

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    thnx alot for that link
     
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  7. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    cellphones also dont work at your house, no matter where you live, the house next door wil always have 3 times more signal than yaur house
     
  8. surenderer Registered Senior Member

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    I have just always been curious about what kind of cell phone calls (they were said to be personal cell phones not the ones supplied by the airlines) were passengers using on 9-11 that could make calls from such high altitudes
     
  9. Maddad Time is a Weighty Problem Registered Senior Member

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    What reason would there be for cell phones not working at altitude or speed?
     
  10. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    well #1 the metal bedy of an airplane would stop most signal in my view, and #2 in order to make a call you need to have your cellphone relaying with a transmitter, if you are flying so fast that you are using different transmitters constantly ther must be some problem with making a call
     
  11. Maddad Time is a Weighty Problem Registered Senior Member

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    That's fascinating. I had no idea that metal resisted a radio transmission more if it were higher up.
     
  12. slotty Colostomy-its not my bag Registered Senior Member

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    I would imagine that flying at most at about 600mph makes no difference to the signal. Its travelling at 186,200miles per second. :m:
     
  13. geodesic "The truth shall make ye fret" Registered Senior Member

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    I think vslayer's talking about moving between different transmitter regions, nothing to do with red/blue shift. I don't think the plane would be travelling fast enough to cause transmitter problems either though.
     
  14. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    ok, so a tower has 5km range, so thats a new tower every 10km, a plane travelling 13km/minute is therefore changing transmitters every 7 1/2 minutes, i guess it wouldnt make that much difference
     
  15. geodesic "The truth shall make ye fret" Registered Senior Member

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    Actually... it's more like once every 46 seconds, but I still think that's easily slow enough for a phone to handle.
     
  16. weed_eater_guy It ain't broke, don't fix it! Registered Senior Member

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    airliners go much higher than 5km if memory serves
     
  17. vslayer Registered Senior Member

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    no, 5km sounds about right
     
  18. Maddad Time is a Weighty Problem Registered Senior Member

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    Well, they go as high as 40,000 feet. That's about 7.5 miles or 12 kilometers.
     
  19. Facial Valued Senior Member

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    I've been to 4x kilofeet on a 777, or prob even 5x.
     
  20. Maddad Time is a Weighty Problem Registered Senior Member

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    Did you fall out?
     
  21. Gifted World Wanderer Registered Senior Member

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    It's the nature of metal. You'll lose signal inside a metal framed building, right? Figures you'd lose signal in a giant aluminum tube.
     
  22. cooljayman Hangover's Best Friend Registered Senior Member

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    Yeah 50kfeet sounds about right
     
  23. weed_eater_guy It ain't broke, don't fix it! Registered Senior Member

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    when you take off and land you're lower. but they tell you you can't use them then. how ironic

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