mconlonx

Here's another good one, "But then how could I use my cell phone to text while riding my own bicycle?!?"

The people who got whacked with enormous fines were using car-mount jammers more than likely powered by 12v DC off the car electrics. Keep in mind that for the sake of this discussion, there is no way, ever, a jammer small and light enough for bicycle use, 10-30' effective radius, would ever block more than phone users in an immediate area, certainly not an FAA level interruption, and nowhere near the strength of car-appropriate jammers.

As for more distracting, why wouldn't most think, "Lost signal," and wait for a bit until trying to text or call?

squirtdad

so what benefit would it be if it were only worked 10-30 feet? that be not be enough time for distracted person to react to a bike ahead or beside. and with a moving bike the interaction time would be seconds or less...

the idea is not well thought through as to real life scenarios

most likely scenario: driver talking on phone or texting loses services right at the critical point of intersection with a cyclist, making them further distracted, not less, thereby increasing danger to cyclists.

Over all not a benefit or good solution even it it were legal

rebel1916

I'm not sure if I like the part where the OP proposes committing a federal crime, or the part where he asks if others are committing a federal crime, the best. All on a public forum.

GravelMN

The Way it Works in Real Life

"Hello, Hello, John, You still there? Hellooooo . . . sh**!"
Looks at phone to see if call was dropped
Tries to immediately redial, call doesn't go through.
Looks at phone again to see how many bars he has = none as his signal is jammed
Waves phone around trying to get signal
"sh**"
Finally puts phone on dash or in pocket and returns to the task of driving.

OR

"Hello, Hello, John, You still there? Hel (LOUD THUD) . . . SH**!!!!"
"Oh, there you are, John. I have to hang up and call 911 now, I just hit some guy on a bicycle."



A bicycle based jamming device with a 30-foot radius would be not only illegal, but less than useless and possibly detrimental to its intended purpose of making the rider safer in traffic.

howsteepisit

maybe we could have the OP try it out and report back in a couple of months.

ModeratedUser150120149

This "idea" ranks right down there with the person who suggested carrying a three foot stick with a key on the end of it. The purpose was to "key" any passer by who got too close by putting a big scratch in their paint. "That'll teach them to get too close".

I-Like-To-Bike

It seems the intended purpose of cell jammer use as suggested would be for a jackass to prove that is exactly what he is.

Redhatter

I think you underestimate just how far a little power can go, especially line-of-sight. Riding home from a barbecue one afternoon I recall making contact with a station in New Caledonia on 5W of transmit power. I know people who set up microwave kit atop mountain tops around the Brisbane area and fire <1W transmissions at each-other, quite successfully.

My first amateur radio contact via a repeater was using 50mW from a hand-held radio with a rubber ducky, to a repeater that was about 2km away on 70cm (433MHz). My first ever contact was between two hand-helds running at 500mW through scrub over 3-4km on 2m (146.500MHz).

I can almost guarantee any device you buy on the market will be capable of that whilst using very modest power supplies.

What's more: direction finding at UHF frequencies is piss easy. Go talk to a local amateur radio club about fox hunting. If radio amateurs can do it with little more than homebrew hand-held directional antennas and pocket UHF scanners, you can bet the FCC/Ofcom/ACMA/whoever will have sufficient kit to pinpoint you in a matter of seconds.

Have a read of the above articles, I believe in the case quoted, it took them 3 days, and that fellow was in a car sustaining a higher speed than you're likely to do on a bicycle. A slow moving target is much easier.

You clearly don't understand the phone-obsessed. These are people who can't bear to be out of contact for 3 seconds, and are constantly checking their devices for all manner of notifications.

bgav

Seems like logic, reason, the law, the potential of facing tens of thousands of dollars of fines, and jeopardizing public safety won't persuade the OP that a jammer is a bad idea and his logic about making himself safer by using one is flawed..

njkayaker

Useless.

30 mph is 44 feet per second. The distraction that leads to an accident has likely occurred before your jamming.

10 feet?

You don't have any idea, at all, how these things work.

Even if your magical device was possible, it would be too late.

njkayaker

The idea isn't based on any understanding of how these things work in real life.

GP

You can say that about this whole subforum.

prooftheory

As a parent, what I would really like to have is a cell jammer installed into my car that only has a range to cover the driver, that always works when the car is in drive. My kids don't drive yet or have cell phones but I know that kids sometimes make bad decisions even when you hammer the truth into them. Their brains are too full of hormones to always make the unselfish choice. It would be especially cool if insurance companies would give discounts for this.

njkayaker

(I'm assuming sarcasm.) You can say all sorts of things that aren't (likely) to be correct.

njkayaker

This wouldn't be that hard to do for a specific cell phone (there are some challenges but it doesn't require magic). It would be hard to do for any cell phone.

Redhatter

Ohh I realise this… the OP is emulating this character to a tee: Ferrous Cranus

If it doesn't convince the OP, it might convince someone else who gets the same idea. Then again, perhaps I'm just naïve.

KD5NRH

Do you really think your kid will drive better while leaning over into the passenger seat to get out of jamming range?

njkayaker

It couldn't work like that anyway. You can (fairly) easily disable a particular phone in a particular car.

genec

I believe there is an app that does just that... that parents can buy for the family car, to disable learning drivers' phones. It isn't a wide signal jammer though.

Here is one... Cellcontrol - For your family

I believe Verizon offers that as a feature also.

JoeyBike

...breaking the law actually [can be] safer than what the law provides...

Guilty as charged.

RomansFiveEight

+1

It's sort of like the "install cellphone jammers in cars" schtick. Emergencies? Passengers? I use my phone all the time when riding as a passenger. Emergency personnel?

A whole host of reasons, other than the illegal part; why it's just a bad idea. And I seriously doubt it'd be all that effective.

kickstart

Possessing the ability to get away with breaking the law doesn't quantify it as "safer", and its not really relevant.

A jammer is like crossing an intersection in a manner not consistent with the law while holding a flaggers stop sign, hoping others will obey the stop sign instead of just getting confused.

Dave Cutter

How is this NOT in the politics only area?

I-Like-To-Bike

Because the Mods apparently believe posts that are mostly hysterical ranting about the alleged horrific risk to bystanders from cell phone use, and associated wack-a-doodle solutions are A&S material?

Dave Cutter

I'll bet you're right. Too bad too.