AboutChris Bushman Expertise I have been an amateur radio operator for about 36 years.
Experience In real life I manage a small motion picture film lab in Hollywood. I've been a fireman, a teacher of English in Okinawa, a personal computer tutor.
I am an Advanced Class Ham radio operator using my originally issued callsign WB6EEQ. I have operated for extended periods of time from Okinawa (KR6FX & KR6OP), Texas (K5VXG), and Mississippi (K5TYP).
While in the Air Force, I was a Manual Morse Radio Intercept Operator.
BS Zoology, UC Davis
Member, Society of Motion Picture/Television Engineers http://www.smpte.org/ - Member, American Radio Relay League http://www.arrl.org/ - Member, Quarter Century Wireless Assn. http://www.lockport-ny.com/radio.htm - President, Zen Nippon Airinkai, So Cal Chapter http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Chris_Bushman/ - Member, Maltose Falcons Homebrewing Society http://www.westval.com/mfalcons/ - Alumni, American Brewers' Guild http://www.abgbrew.com/
Expert: Chris Bushman Date: 2/18/2008 Subject: Cell phones causing interference on Ham radio?
Question I am helping with Special Olympics in Idaho next week, and communication is being handled by Ham radio operators. I am told that I must turn off my cell phone while I am there because it would interfere with their communications. My duties there are to work with the press (newspapers, etc.) I need to communicate with them. What do I do?
Answer Tom, it would be EXTREMELY unlikely for there to be any interference problems between the two services.
Cell phone services operate in bands between 850Mhz & 2690MHz. The Hams at the Special Olympics will probably use 144Mhz band - nowhere near the cellphone bands.
The power used by cellphones is a fraction of a watt, cellphone towers use one or two watts. Neither are a threat to any Ham radio operation. Most Ham handheld transceivers are 1 to 5 watts. There are commercial TV and Radio stations in the area running thousands of watts, have they been asked to shut down???
There will probably be several hundred people on hand and several hundred cellphones. They are not all going to turn off their cellphones! I'll bet ALL of the Hams have cellphones and I'm sure they will not turn theirs off! If the 800 or so cellphone conversations that will be flying through the air all around the venue are a problem for the Hams, they are doing something DREADFULLY wrong!
This sounds like a very strange rumor started by a totally uninformed person or someone with a questionable agenda.
Thanks for helping with the Special Olympics, Tom!!!
