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Subject: Re: Birdwatcher Hill Fire - chapter 14 fact check Author: Leo Kerr [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 15:23:11 01/03/16 Sun In reply to: Shadowhawk 's message, "Birdwatcher Hill Fire - chapter 14 fact check" on 05:43:17 01/01/16 Fri my understanding (on cell phones in the air) is they're one of the things that cell operators hate. A cell phone on the ground has a very short range, and line-of-sight, you might only "see" a very few towers. If you're in the air, however, you might see.. most of the towers in a given area, which means the whole hand-off logistics thing is a lot more complicated -- and the system, thinking you're on the ground -- needs to do it far more often. The system engineers don't like it, but, at least as of a few years ago, there wasn't much they could do about it. Leo [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: Re: Birdwatcher Hill Fire - chapter 14 fact check Author: Ellis [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 02:24:26 01/04/16 Mon >First is about Jackie and Becca. Would cell phone >service be available in the plane flying at their >altitudes, and would SpearfishLake have enough cell >phone tower coverage? Sure, they're flying pretty low, only a thousand feet up according to chapter four. Private pilots routinely use their cell phones up to 5 thousand feet AGL or so, maybe higher if they get lucky. It has become common to weather updates on your smartphone in GA aircraft. Try climbing a thousand foot tall mountain and your cell coverage will get much, much better than at the base of it. >Does the type of plane Rocinante is have a good >view down to check the fire? Yes, see Wes' reply. That applies even more so in a gentle turn; the plane banks over, giving a view straight down. That the plane is slow also helps with pinpointing things on the ground. Cell towers do indeed have directional antennas designed to have the strongest signal near the horizon. It falls off quickly, because if you are next to the tower, the short distance (only the tower height), overwhelms the fact that the antenna is less efficient. Also, real antennas don't go to zero receptivity, just drop probably 50 dB. 10 miles from the tower at 1000 feet up is only 1.1 degrees, well within a cell tower antenna's strongest area. Leo, my understanding is that you are right, and there still isn't much they can do about it, but that the newer digital towers are much better at dealing with it. Also, the phone companies complaining to the FCC was one of the things that led to the ban on cell phones on airliners. The given reason is mostly baloney, but it sounds good to the average person. The biggest reason you (any individual) should put your phone in airplane mode is to save the battery. There hasn't been a documented case of cell phones interfering with avionics that I'm aware of, though there have been a few pilot reports that are unsubstantiated and couldn't be reproduced. -E [ Post a Reply to This Message ]