Frazzled Urbanites Turn to Personal Cellular Jammers
Sun Nov 4, 2007 3:07PM EST
See Comments (17)
It's a common enough feeling. The girl on the bus or that guy in the back of the movie theater just will not shut up and get off the phone. How many times have you wished you could push a button and silence that cell phone, if only for a moment of peace? Well, it's not so tough to get it.
Cell phone jammers are one of the worst-kept secrets in the world of technology. They've been around, available on the gray market and from overseas importers for years now. But the technology is improving, prices are falling, and people seem to have had it with Chatty Cathys, all of which is driving them to new heights of popularity.
The latest jammers, as the New York Times reminds us, are about the size of a pack of cigarettes and can jam any cell phone in a 30-foot radius, essentially ending all nearby calls at the push of a button. "Deliverance!" is the comment from one San Francisco architect who shut down a "Valley Girl" conversation during his morning commute.
Jammers are of course illegal; using one can subject you to an $11,000 fine. This may seem harsh, but the rationale is that jamming can interfere with emergency calls; someone may be sick, or criminals might use one while robbing a bank. That said, it appears no one has yet to actually be caught or punished for using such a device, even a restaurant owner who installed one semi-permanently to keep his employees from yapping away during business hours.
A little web searching (or reading the second page of the linked article) will turn up numerous sites selling jammers. Fpr $150, you can get a model that jams all American cell phone technologies. Legal or not, I have to say the technology is awfully tempting. What do you think?
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7 Posted by darktruth06 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:36PM EDT Report Abuse
I wouldn't have the guts to use one, but kudos to anyone who does.
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8 Posted by ba2jazzed on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:01PM EDT Report Abuse
Personnally I believe everyone using a cell phone in inappropiate places like, theaters, restuarants etc should be firmly removed from the premises and encouraged to finish their talk outside. Why does everyone need to talk so loud? I've actually seen and know people who talk low and most don't even know they are speaking on a phone! That is how it should be.
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9 Posted by kmmassa@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:52PM EDT Report Abuse
I agree with muscogeekid. We are going to see major abuse of these jammers in a very short time. Although I rarely use my cell phone, I don't want to find it jammed someday when I do need to make a call because I happen to be in the vicinity of some Chatty Cathy someone else is jamming.
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10 Posted by royale_18 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:53PM EDT Report Abuse
This all seems a little dangerous. It shuoldn't be up to some random person to determine whether your cell phone conversation is "worthy." People that are on trains and busses with others for long periods of time could leave their jammers on all the time and really cause trouble for people. Where's the line? What's stopping some jerk, who's equally as callous as rude chatters, from deciding that he shouldn't EVER have to be subject to other people's cell conversations?
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11 Posted by agustin2489 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:47PM EDT Report Abuse
The problem at hand here is that people just find it obnoxious when other people are just being annoying. Either you resort to using cell phone jammers or you decide to move on/not care. I'd do the latter.
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12 Posted by jairaj on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:27PM EDT Report Abuse
I want to use it in traffic when I'm stuck behind a guy who's yapping on the cell phone and going half the speed limit, oblivious to traffic behind him.
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13 Posted by bhhanlon on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:06PM EDT Report Abuse
A
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14 Posted by wxgddss on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51PM EDT Report Abuse
There's... like... nothing I hate more, you know, than... walking down the street in San Francisco... and a person is like, so self-absorbed that they totally don't even notice you, you know, completely and loudly mocking them... I mean, seriously! I need this device. It is now the number 1 item on my Christmas list!
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15 Posted by jim0214 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:35PM EDT Report Abuse
A small cell phone jammer used to prevent cellular phones from working is only good for 15 feet anywhere around the jammer. Walk your happy self's away by 20 feet and the mindless blather can overflow all they want. Cell phone frequencies are 800MHz to 1900MHz. Airline cockpit frequencies are different from cell phones. They would not interfere with any airline transmissions. (muscogeekid) maybe right about being guilty and obnoxious in other ways. The point here is the (Rudeness of Cell Phone Users) and use of jammers against them. I'd like to talk about those obnoxious in other ways at some other point.
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16 Posted by skshaddix on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:26PM EDT Report Abuse
There's not much people can do that's more selfish than inane chatter, on a phone, in a public place. If I pay money to see a movie, I don't want to be subjected to somebody's conversation. If you're going to talk on the phone & not watch the movie, don't go to the movie. I try to be respectful of the people around me. If I need to make a call, I go outside. If you think that's obnoxious, then I'm betting you are one of those people who will talk away without regard to anybody else around you. Business owners need to take a firm stand on this. They put up signs, but, don't follow up on it. I would have no problem with telling somebody to leave if they felt compelled to be disruptive subjecting everybody to their conversations...
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17 Posted by aviasphere on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:59PM EDT Report Abuse
I do not like the idea of curbing someone elses freedom just to make mypersonal life easier.
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6 Posted by muscogeekid on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:30PM EDT Report Abuse
I think people who are intolerant of cell phone users are probably guilty of being obnoxious in other ways, not related to cell phones. And I doubt they would like it if their own calls were jammed. This is an unethical use of technology that people are justifying with selfish reasons. If you use a jammer, don't be irritated if you need to make a call yourself someday and can't because someone is jamming you.