# Cell Phone Jammer: Your Opinion? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631 "2004-08-06T15:41:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/41 "2004-08-09T06:32:39Z")
> [@St. Urho](#): > > The problem with cell phone jammers is that cell phone frequencies are right next to Police/Fire/EMS frequencies on the spectrum. What happens is, cell phone jammers could frequently jam emergency communications as well as cell phones. > > St. Urho > EMT-P Nope, if that was the case I’d hear cell calls on my trunking scanner. All I get in that range are EMS transmissions. I’m wondering why the hell anyone would spend that kind of coin on a jammer? It’s not too hard to figure out the electronics of transmitters to receivers (cellphones). Spend a couple hours learning about radio waves and you’ll be able to build one yourself. Just don’t ask me how, since they are illegal in the US. What set me off wasn’t theaters. It was a funeral for a friend’s mom that had 4…FOUR!!!..phones ring during the Church service. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/42 "2004-08-09T11:38:07Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Why should the fact that we have this new technology make it necessary for one to irritate other people at all? Why do I need to be distracted in a movie by a person who is shuffling in and out to answer their damn cellphone? Is it somehow more distracting than someone getting up to take a wiz? I think that’s a pretty low threshold for irritation, if someone simply getting up and stepping away is so bothersome. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/43 "2004-08-09T12:26:41Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I have a question: > > Do you people _really_ hear cell phones go off in theatres enough to annoy you or do you just talk about it because it has become such a popular cliche? Oh yes, around here it is a plague. About 1/3 of the movies I go to have idiots either forgetting to turn the phones off and scrambling to mute the ringer when they get a call. Occasionally you got the true inconsiderate bastard who actually takes the call, sometimes in not-so-hushed tones. I understand what people are saying about emergency calls and such, but I would propose making “Cell Phone Free Zones” which movie theatres would be a part of. If you absolutely, positively have to get that call then stay out of the theatre. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/44 "2004-08-09T12:38:49Z")
IMO it’s all about consideration. I have no beef with, say, a doctor on call being in a movie with his phone on vibrate (as has been stated above) when it vibrates he vamooshes, no harm no foul. The sort of person everyone hates is the ones who would proceed to _take a call_ in the middle of the movie. Sure jamming their phones takes away that avenue of assholeishness, but anyone who is that inconsiderate is just going to sit there talking to their friends and making sucking noises with their soda. I am against such jammers personally. What If I am in a cinema, and my father is taken critically ill, should I be uncontactable because i’m in a movie? I realize that 30 years ago I would have had to cope, but so what? 130 years ago i’d have been sent up a chimney at age 5, why should that impact on my lifestyle today? As long as people have the consideration to turn their ringtones off, and not take the call in the cinema, then they’re ok by me. just my ha’penny worth ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/45 "2004-08-09T16:59:01Z")
I see movies about 5 times a year at the theatre, I usually get the idiot who wants to use his phone 4 of those times. One exception was last night, I saw the Bourne Supremecy (not bad, about what I had expected). No ringers but we did get a couple of people flipping the full color display on which is no fun, I think they were just turning it off when they forgot during the message. Of course there were only 30 people in the room at the time…make it 100 and you are guaranteed to hear a ringer. I’m all for large scale phone blocking as long as people are notified ahead of time, and not just at the movies. Even better would be blocking the signal in some rooms and not in others. If for example they are running Spiderman on 5 screens, maybe we could have 1 showing without blocking the signal. I’d still imagine we would only see a very small percentage of people use the non-blocked theatres. Most of us want peace and quiet. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/46 "2004-08-09T17:33:46Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - > - Well damn, it’s half of what I wanted for Christmas: the other thing was a hand-held jammer that makes super-loud car stereos blasting ghetto music to play only static. > ~ What I want for Christmas is a hand-held device that would reconfigure the ghetto blaster so that it endlessly played the “Barney” theme song. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/47 "2004-08-09T19:30:56Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > \ > \ > > 1. Use of cell phone jammers picks up, despite their illegality. > 2. Feds begin polite ad campaign that jammers are illegal. > 3. People ignore Feds. > 4. Feds determine cell phone jammers are a threat to national security under USA Patriot Act. Anyone caught using a cell phone jammer is deemed to be a terrorist. > 5. Feds deploy jammer detection vans throughout America, finding untold numbers of terrorists across the country… \ \ 1. Self-righteous busy bodies, who enjoy telling other people how to live their lives, start an illegal buying binge on cell phone signal jammers 2. John Kerry comes out in support of the technology. GW has his press secretary release a statement calling for the destruction of all signal jammers. After private polling, Kerry changes his position and Cheney changes Bush’s. 3. Michael Moore releases a documentary lamenting the fact signal jammers are more difficult to buy than AK47’s on the Afghan black market. 4. In a more predictible move, Ralph Nader supports the sale of solar powered signal jammers. No one, with the exception of the ABA, notes the fact anyone who has their signal jammed could sue - citing loss of valuable and life threatening information. 5. New York & New Jersey pass a laws restricting the use of jamming devices in automobiles and smoke-free taverns. Etc. \ \ ---
**Author:** ![pestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@pestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pestie)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/48 "2004-08-09T21:31:53Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Do you people _really_ hear cell phones go off in theatres enough to annoy you or do you just talk about it because it has become such a popular cliche? Oh, lord yes. It happens at least once every time I go to a movie. When I saw Fahrenheit 911 it happened at least twice. I actually told one girl to turn off her damned phone and her tough-guy boyfriend told me to “calm the f\*\*\* down” or some such. I let it go at that point - I didn’t want to start trouble. But come on - the phone was in her purse when it rang, somewhat muffling the sound, and rather than trying to muffle it further or shutting it off she took it out to see who was calling. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/49 "2004-08-10T00:04:01Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Is it somehow more distracting than someone getting up to take a wiz? > > I think that’s a pretty low threshold for irritation, if someone simply getting up and stepping away is so bothersome. It’s the reason for doing it. Most people will go before they sit down, and if nature calls, I accept that you might need to step away and distract me and everyone else for a few seconds by getting up. Taking a call from your sister so she can talk about something she could have told you an hour later is not a necessity, or even close. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/50 "2004-08-10T04:22:05Z")
How do you know why they’re getting up? Do you follow them out of the movie theater every time they get up to make sure they go into the bathroom? What if they sneak in there to use the phone? Wouldn’t that be devious… If the cellphone or pager is on vibrate, and the person can find a seat near the aisle, I don’t see the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/51 "2004-08-10T11:22:49Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > It’s the reason for doing it. Most people will go before they sit down, and if nature calls, I accept that you might need to step away and distract me and everyone else for a few seconds by getting up. > > Taking a call from your sister so she can talk about something she could have told you an hour later is not a necessity, or even close. Since you don’t know if they are getting up to answer a silent phone vs using the bathroom, I fail to see how one can irritate more than the other. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/52 "2004-08-10T14:27:39Z")
> [@percypercy](#): > > How do you know why they’re getting up? Do you follow them out of the movie theater every time they get up to make sure they go into the bathroom? What if they sneak in there to use the phone? Wouldn’t that be devious… If the cellphone or pager is on vibrate, and the person can find a seat near the aisle, I don’t see the problem. So courtesy is now about whether or not the person distracted knows the real reason why they’ve been distracted? So if ask you to get up halfway through the movie and move your seat because I have a medical condition causing my legs to cramp and I need more room to stretch out, but I have no medical condition and just felt like having more space, that should be fine. After all, you don’t know the real reason I did it, wouldn’t that be devious? Courtesy originates with the person leaving the theater and having legitimate reasons for doing so. I really didn’t think that would be so hard to figure out, but based on our society today, I should have realized that I assumed too much. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/53 "2004-08-10T16:35:51Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Courtesy originates with the person leaving the theater and having legitimate reasons for doing so. I really didn’t think that would be so hard to figure out, but based on our society today, I should have realized that I assumed too much. Who are you to say what’s legitimate or not? How do you know if the patron leaving the threatre to take a call is a surgeon being paged for an emergency, a cop desperitely needed downtown, a housewife going to answer the babysitter to find out that her child is having convultions or a man talking with his buddy about his golf score? As long as the ring is silent and the patron leaves the auditorium to take the call, I don’t see where the luddites have any legitimate beef here. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/54 "2004-08-10T17:33:03Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > Who are you to say what’s legitimate or not? How do you know if the patron leaving the threatre to take a call is a surgeon being paged for an emergency, a cop desperitely needed downtown, a housewife going to answer the babysitter to find out that her child is having convultions or a man talking with his buddy about his golf score? As long as the ring is silent and the patron leaves the auditorium to take the call, I don’t see where the luddites have any legitimate beef here. Are you nuts? Do you honestly have a hard time understanding this, or are you just bating me? Are you really saying that being disruptive is okay, so long as everyone thinks that it’s for a good reason, even though it isn’t? That’s just insane and indefensible. I’m willing to accept the argument, even though I disagree with it, that taking pointless phonecalls from relatives and friends is o.k. because getting up from an aisle seat and leaving the theater is not that big a disruption. It’s simply stupid to say that it may be a disruption, but it’s okay because those disrupted do not know that the real reason for the disruption is banal and meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![trishka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@trishka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trishka)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/55 "2004-08-10T18:47:50Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I have a question: Do you people _really_ hear cell phones go off in theatres enough to annoy you or do you just talk about it because it has become such a popular cliche? [QUOTE] Yep. I actually can forgive the first infraction because the cellphone owner might have forgotten to turn it off before the movie started. Forgiveable, I think. Much worse - not on the phone ringing in the theatre but the person answering the call and talking in his/her seat during the movie. Unforgiveable. And for those who keep mentioning people who must have their phones on (doctors, etc), it would not be that difficult to set the phone to the vibrate function. Not to mention it feels good. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/56 "2004-08-10T18:57:24Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > Are you really saying that being disruptive is okay, so long as everyone thinks that it’s for a good reason, even though it isn’t? That’s just insane and indefensible. You couldn’t miss the point more if you were throwing warped darts at it blindfolded. He’s not saying that _at all_. All he’s saying is that you ought to withhold judgement in such a case, since you have no way of knowing whether the call is urgent or not. Yes, it’s rude and inconsiderate to take a call just because you want to chat with a buddy, but really, the annoyance level of someone getting up and leaving–whatever the reason–is so low as to not be worth getting all bothered over. ---
**Author:** ![trishka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@trishka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trishka)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/57 "2004-08-10T19:33:15Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > For god’s sake, how did mothers with children drive a half a mile to the grocery store, knowing that if their car broke down, they would be attacked by marauding bands of “Mad Max” like highway assassins if they could not immediately reach the national guard via cellphone? Well, I don’t know about the National Guard but for example, my husband and 16 month old son drove to the grocery store on Saturday morning in our wagon, came out from the store and the car would not turn over. Battery just decided to up and quit. My husband asked multiple people if they had jumper cables, with no luck. Phone call on his cellphone to me and I came to the rescue. I guess in 1976, he and our child could’ve just stayed there forever. At least they would’ve had food…and possibly a career as a grocery clerk. ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/58 "2004-08-10T20:26:40Z")
> [@trishka](#): > > Well, I don’t know about the National Guard but for example, my husband and 16 month old son drove to the grocery store on Saturday morning in our wagon, came out from the store and the car would not turn over. Battery just decided to up and quit. My husband asked multiple people if they had jumper cables, with no luck. Phone call on his cellphone to me and I came to the rescue. > > I guess in 1976, he and our child could’ve just stayed there forever. At least they would’ve had food…and possibly a career as a grocery clerk. I dunno if it’s just because I’m feeling silly or what, but now I’ve got a picture of you sitting in a covered wagon wearing a bonnet and everything sitting in a supermarket parking lot. Guess the engine’s in the back. ::shrug:: -Lil ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/59 "2004-08-10T20:58:19Z")
For all you people out there who think it’s no big deal when people get up in a movie, I can’t believe you. When you’re watching a great movie, you have no problem when someone GETS UP, excuses himself past 15 people, goes down the step and down the hall, opens the door letting all the light in? Really, that’s no problem? We pay $18 for a movie nowadays for 2 people and the last time I even let myself go pee during a movie was the ROTK and only because I just couldn’t stand it any longer. What the hell happened to common courtesy? By this token the girl who sat next to me during Dodgeball, checking her cellphone every 15 minutes by turning on the display shouldn’t have bothered me either, right? I should just be able to ignore it, right? I mean, it only was reflected into my eyes, she wasn’t making any noise while doing it. I just don’t get you. If you have some dire need to answer the phone in the movie either don’t come or sit on the bottom by the door. It’s your problem, not mine. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/60 "2004-08-10T20:58:48Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I have a question: > > Do you people _really_ hear cell phones go off in theatres enough to annoy you or do you just talk about it because it has become such a popular cliche? > > . Well, not so often. But recently- every single time I take a drive of any length- or walk on cuty streets- I am annoyed or endangered by dudes (well, to be honest- “dudettes” mostly) talking on their cell while they drive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631.md?page=4)