IP: The cure is only slightly worse than the disease...: [risks] Risks Digest 21.78

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 12:56:57 -0700
> From: "Stewart, Russell" <russtew@sandia.gov>
> Subject: The cure is only slightly worse than the disease...
>
> This story taken off of the newswire today:
>
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011121/od/tech_hongkong_champion_dc_1.html
>
> Concerns a signal-jamming technology being developed by a Hong Kong company
> to block cellphone calls in areas where they are not wanted. Not a bad idea,
> but the following excerpt caught my attention:
>
>   "A Hong Kong company hopes to sell signal-jamming technology previously
>   used by the military to thwart lethal missiles to block annoying cellphone
>   calls in places such as hospitals, places of worship and restaurants."
>
> Hospitals? Now, I admit I know very little about jamming technology, but I
> know that, at the very least, it requires transmitting radio energy on the
> same frequency as the signal you are trying to jam. Presumably, it involves
> transmitting at a considerably higher power than that of the target
> signal. Now, as I understand it, hospitals' no-cellphone policy is based on
> the fear that the phones' radio transmissions might interfere with hospital
> equipment.  Are we to understand, then, that they intend to combat the
> problem by installing a device that, by definition, must transmit on the
> same frequencies at the same or considerably greater power?
>
> I hope this was simply an error on the writer's part...
>
> Russell Stewart, Sandia National Laboratories  russtew@sandia.gov


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