Planes & Cell phones

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 00:53:13 +0000, James Robinson wrote:

Greg Copeland wrote:

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 16:35:03 -0500, FUji wrote:

Huh? Maximum output of most handheld cell phones is 0.6 watts with the old
in-car and bag phones going up to 3 watts. It can't output more than it's
maximum no matter how far you are away from the tower. The radius of
interference from 0.6 watt phones transmitting from inside an aluminum can
would be rather small. And it's a little hard to imagine a plane full of
people with bag phones.

I thought I might just toss this out there. I quickly looked. I did not
have any trouble finding modern, handheld phones, with 2-watts output.
So, I think it's safe to say that we know for sure it's at least 2-watts.

Both of my run-of-the-mill Nokias have a maximum transmit power of 600
mW. They are two different digital/analog models.

Well, that's an interesting point. I know if I leave my phone on in the
air, it tends to degrade to analog mode (dual band phone). While I am
aware the digital mode uses far less power (just didn't realize that
little), perhaps the 5-watt maximum number is representative of phones
operating in analog mode? I dunno. That's my best guess.