I can understand the desire. But at the same time, I use Spotify while I'm driving and it would be really annoying to me that a crazy spacebat with a jammer blocked my tunes. But as is pointed out already, I feel certain this would actually increase distracted driving.
Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
141–150 of 207 posts
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#142I got to play with these in Afghanistan. They were installed in our SUVs but they were so huge and unwieldy. I'd be interested in seeing what setup he had. Unless the traffic was very dense and slow, I'd imagine him just forcing calls to be dropped as he passed by which doesn't really seem helpful. Restaurants/theaters/anywhere-there-be-tweens, yeah bring it on in those locales!
Historical aside: during the 'Troubles' in my part of the world, the creators of radio-triggered devices soon became wise to jammers and inverted the logic so that they detonated when a continuous signal was lost due to jamming.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#143I don't know if you noticed this but in my area most of retail stores have terrible cellphone reception. I'm assuming they put cell jammers in their store too
There are building materials that naturally block/reflect/absorb mobile frequencies which is perfectly legal. That is different from transmitting a signal to jam which is highly illegal.
One other trick is to advertise as a cell and accept connections, then just black-hole them.
Full signal strength but no calls.
Edit: may be illegal in your jurisdiction if you require a license to transmit on cell frequencies.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#144My guess would be driving around with a relatively short-range jammer actually increases the odds of being hit by a distracted driver. Rather than people driving near you being distracted by conversations on their phones, they're going to be even more distracted because their call just got dropped, prompting them to look at the display waiting for the bars to come back so they can re-dial.
But... if they became standard, no one would ever be able to use their phones near roads. Which would cause people to stop trying in the first place.
This neglects navigation, passengers, calls for roadside assistance, and dozens of other legitimate uses for phones on roads.
Don't know about you, but I am orders of magnitude more dangerous when I'm uncertain about where I'm going.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is we are dismantling our land line network. So if you don't have cell phone there might not by any phone in the building that works. Next what about emergency workers? They need to be able to be contacted. Or what about people on call for their jobs? All of these things could be blocked by jammers and the idea that we survived once without it unconvincing we survived once without vacancies and antibiotic…
Huh? Where are "we" dismantling our landline network?
Are you being deliberately obtuse?
Every payphone I've ever seen in my lifetime has been removed.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#146My opinion is probably in the minority on this issue, but I think cell phones should be disabled by default near vehicles(Except for emergency services). As a stick-driver and motorcyclist, I see way too many distracted drivers. People will miss lights, swerve, and worse because of their cell phones. The one thing that will help reverse this trend will be self-driving cars.
Downvotes for an unpopular opinion. Keep up the good work hacker news!
Please don't complain in HN comments about being downvoted. It's against the rules for good reason.
Most of the time, someone will come along and correct it (as happened here).
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#147Does anyone know if it is illegal for the military to operate these within the United States? I'm not sure they're in use, but I did notice that an unreasonably high percentage of my phone calls were (perhaps coincidentally) dropped when I was on I-395 near the Pentagon.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#148I've dreamed of doing this for a decade, even found some sources in the U.K. to purchase a few and looked up schematics for building wideband jammers. Ultimately it was the very serious approach the FCC takes that stopped me from really exploring it, even for fun. Everthing I'd read indicated that you'd be caught and fast, so I'm sort of surprised it took two years, even if it was on a highway. But lord I still might…
What gives you the right to prevent other people from going about their business in a public place?
It annoys me when people use cliches, for example, but I don't interpret that as giving me the right to cut out their tongues.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can buy and install a cellphone extender for your house.
Yes, it's a true fact that you can pay money for the privilege of extending the cell phone provider's network, while also paying the backhaul the cell phone company's traffic over your internet link, while also paying the cell phone for their "service" that you have to personally install and operate. I have no idea why people think this is an acceptable scenario.
The providers apparently assume that you're already paying for "unlimited" internet.
Also, these access points pair with your device and don't provide bandwidth to other random devices, so at least you're not providing free backhaul for random passersby.
Re: Driver caught using cell phone jamming device
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can buy and install a cellphone extender for your house.
Yes, it's a true fact that you can pay money for the privilege of extending the cell phone provider's network, while also paying the backhaul the cell phone company's traffic over your internet link, while also paying the cell phone for their "service" that you have to personally install and operate. I have no idea why people think this is an acceptable scenario.
There are other ones which are just a simple amplifier, not a whole base station. There's one antennae on the outside, another smaller one on the inside, and whatever signal it picks up one one antennae, it retransmits on the other with more power. Obviously the antennaes are directional so you don't get feedback, and there might be some more complicated filtering too.