# 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:** 4
**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, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/61 "2004-08-10T21:01:59Z")
> [@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. Well, in 1976 they woudl have wlked a half block to a payphoone- or even asked the dues at the store to use theirs- and no problem. Don’t see how the cell phone “saved the day” here. :dubious: I have been in trouble in remote places where I couldn’t get help. Of course- my cell wouldn’t/didn’t have any signal out there, so… :rolleyes: ---
**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, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/62 "2004-08-10T21:04:00Z")
“wou **ld** have w **a** lked a half block to a payph **o** ne- or even asked the du **d** es” … Man, I am dainbread today. :smack: ---
**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, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/63 "2004-08-10T21:48:02Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > 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. No he wasn’t saying that. I never once said that anyone who leaves a movie theater to take a call could not possibly be taking an urgent call. I also never said that I just assume the call is not urgent. I said that the call taker should not be running out of the theater to take bullshit calls, and leaving the theater to take bullshit calls is not “okay” just because no one else knows whether it is an urgent call or not. There’s a big difference. ---
**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, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/64 "2004-08-10T21:51:04Z")
> [@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. Oh for Pete’s sake, he also could have gone into the grocery store and used their phone. Seriously, is this not the example that proves the point? He was stuck at a grocery store; you’re right, the Alaskan wilds that a modern grocery store constitutes, they both could have starved and been eaten by wolves before being found. Once again, I’m not denying that they are convenient; I just don’t get the mind boggling shock some people profess at not having one (or the implied "your whole family could easily perish because you don’t have one idiocy). ---
**Author:** ![Den\_Mum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@Den\_Mum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Den_Mum)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/65 "2004-08-10T22:52:52Z")
> [@\*\*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. I have to say that I’m with **percypercy** on this issue. If someone is “on call”, for any one of the reasons mentioned previously, I can not see a problem with having their phone on vibrate and quietly leaving the theater to respond. We are certainly not frequent movie goers, we make it 10 - 12 times a year and I think I have been in a theater when a cell went off once in the past five years. Maybe folks are more courteous in our neck of the woods. I truly don’t mind someone getting up and leaving if it is done quietly and as unobtrusively as possible. I personally seldom leave my seat as I have a bladder that obeys me most of the time and am not a big snack bar customer but I have always considered the trips to snack bar & restrooms as part of the movie going package and am not offended by other people’s trips… Now, driving and talking on the cell phone, is probably a larger concern to me. I would agree with **Bumbazine’s** earlier post about this. If the driver is focused on the phone conversation, they are probably putting themselves and everyone else near them on the road at risk. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2004, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/66 "2004-08-10T23:08:23Z")
> [@Bongmaster](#): > > What are your thoughts on using something like this? I admit I’d love to have one to smite the assholes in the movie theatre that either forget to turn the phone off or don’t care enough to respect other people’s viewing pleasure. I worked in criminal court for a few years. The Judges had a memo posted on the doors to the effect that a ringing cell phone would be confiscated period. i.e. it would NOT be returned. Very effective. Theaters should/could escort the owners of ringing phones out of the theater and require paying a new admission to get back in. ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/67 "2004-08-11T01:01:32Z")
> [@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. > ~ I think elevator music would be cooler! ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/68 "2004-08-11T03:23:35Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Nope, if that was the case I’d hear cell calls on my trunking scanner. All I get in that range are EMS transmissions. That’s not necessarily the case, especially since not all areas are on 800 MHz. See [here](http://www.american-firefighter.com/nfpa-infogram/4-08-04.php) > [@](#): > > The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocates portions of the radio frequency spectrum for commercial radio and television broadcasts, emergency service agencies, amateur radio operators, cell phone companies, military communications, etc. In one portion of the spectrum, known as the 800-megahertz band, the radio frequencies of emergency first responders are intermingled with frequencies used for cell phones and other civilian transmissions. Therefore, the FCC recognizes the underlying problem is that some of the radio frequencies allotted for public safety are intermixed with the frequencies designated for commercial cellular phones. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/69 "2004-08-11T16:26:26Z")
Well, I had talked myself out of getting one — they are expensive, it seems like a pretty trivial toy, etc — and then the receptionist behind me _once again_ left her desk and her cellphone behind and someone called her and I had to hear “shave and a haircut two bits, shave and a haircut two bits” over and over for about six iterations and before the last one finished beeping and booling its videogame bleeps at me I’d ordered one. I’ll let you know how it works. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/70 "2004-08-12T14:41:56Z")
The people selling it were just waiting for that situation! Please let us know if it works, and if the cops show up at your door with the package! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/71 "2004-08-13T20:31:34Z")
> [@observer](#): > > From the phonejammer sales page: [0-15 meters] Hardly seems worth it for 300 bucks, apart from all the other issues. That’s about fifty feet, which would jam a sphere 100 feet in diameter in _optimum_ conditions. That would be pretty handy at professional conferences, for example, where one rude person may chit-chat loudly during a presentation. But it’s not like you’re blocking the whole city block. I’m pretty uncomfortable with the idea of them being illegal. The fact that they can be abused is hardly a reasonable justification for illegality. Additionally, their purpose is to _prevent one from bearing an externally applied cost_ rather than to burden another with a cost. If someone is chatting too loud on a phone, then they’re foisting that cost on me, which is not acceptable even if it is tolerable. I’m saying this as one who has never really been bothered by cell phone use. The exception being ringers that are way too loud, and people who don’t answer and let the ringing go on and on. Even that is fairly rare. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/72 "2004-08-13T20:38:50Z")
Received it in a timely fashion, not accompanied by anyone wanting me to come down to headquarters for a little discussion or anything. It looks like a cell phone, complete with little charger unit. Haven’t had reason to use it yet. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/73 "2004-08-13T21:11:40Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > Using such a device is illegal in the US, the UK, Canada and many other countries. Ah, but aren’t there a lot of things that are illegal to use- but not to own? That Samurai sword, for example… 😛 Ahunter- did you get that name from the Christopher Anvil book? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/74 "2004-08-13T21:52:48Z")
I still don’t see the problem with someone setting their phone on vibrate and quietly leaving the theatre. I’ve never found it to be at all disruptive when people get up and leave during a movie. Furthermore, I must agree with others that getting up to leave to take/make a phone call is no more disruptive than getting up to go to the bathroom. Should I leave it up to you to determine what’s important and what’s a good reason for me to leave and what isn’t? Maybe that golf score is important to me. Why should you care, if I’m leaving the theatre to take the call? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/75 "2004-08-13T22:04:14Z")
If some want jammers in selective locations (such as theatres), then I have one more to add: motor vehicles. The jammer only works within the body of the vehicle and is only active when the vehicle is in gear. If you have to chinwag in your car you have to do it while the car is in park. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/76 "2004-08-14T00:03:43Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > I still don’t see the problem with someone setting their phone on vibrate and quietly leaving the theatre. I’ve never found it to be at all disruptive when people get up and leave during a movie. Furthermore, I must agree with others that getting up to leave to take/make a phone call is no more disruptive than getting up to go to the bathroom. Should I leave it up to you to determine what’s important and what’s a good reason for me to leave and what isn’t? Maybe that golf score is important to me. Why should you care, if I’m leaving the theatre to take the call? No you are right. Every individual should just do whatever they want so long as it pleases them, and simply say “fuck you” to everyone else who may be inconvenienced or bothered by it. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/77 "2004-08-14T00:11:42Z")
> [@SlyFrog](#): > > No you are right. Every individual should just do whatever they want so long as it pleases them, and simply say “fuck you” to everyone else who may be inconvenienced or bothered by it. That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I’m trying to say is that I fail to see how you are inconvenienced or bothered that much by the occasional person leaving the theatre while you’re watching a movie. What do you propose? Lock the doors to the theatre from both sides so nobody can get out once the movie starts? It seems more bothersome and inconvenient for all involved to expect nobody to leave their seat at any showing of any movie ever. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/78 "2004-08-14T02:43:18Z")
Has everyone responding to this thread forgotten the question in the OP? It matters fuck all that there are assholes that abuse cell phones. The question is what do you think of using a cell phone jammer. Its already been stated that it doesn’t have an “ass hole mode” to single out assholes. Scenario: A little girl has just been rushed to the E.R. because her face just went through a windshield. The E.R. doc calls Dr. Jones, the best cosmetic surgeon in the state, because he wants him to put her face back together as soon as possible. Dr. Jones has his cell phone on vibrate as he sits near the exit of a movie theatre. Oh, he doesn’t get the call because some asshole is using his cell phone jammer. What’s that? Dr. Jones should never go to the movies? Yeah right. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/79 "2004-08-14T03:56:20Z")
> [@x-ray vision](#): > > Scenario: A little girl has just been rushed to the E.R. because her face just went through a windshield. The E.R. doc calls Dr. Jones, the best cosmetic surgeon in the state, because he wants him to put her face back together as soon as possible. Dr. Jones has his cell phone on vibrate as he sits near the exit of a movie theatre. Oh, he doesn’t get the call because some asshole is using his cell phone jammer. What’s that? Dr. Jones should never go to the movies? Yeah right. Uh huh. Feel free to build other strawmen if you want; just let me know before hand so I don’t have to go through the trouble of reading them. ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631/80 "2004-08-14T04:01:54Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I’m trying to say is that I fail to see how you are inconvenienced or bothered that much by the occasional person leaving the theatre while you’re watching a movie. What do you propose? Lock the doors to the theatre from both sides so nobody can get out once the movie starts? It seems more bothersome and inconvenient for all involved to expect nobody to leave their seat at any showing of any movie ever. I understand what you’re saying now. It’s not an incredible inconvenience. Of course there are degrees of irritation, of bothersomeness in life. Perhaps what I am trying to say is that we should consider whether it is worth bothering another person, even to a relatively minor degree, simply because you want to take a cellphone call that: 1) is not at all urgent; 2) could be made as soon as the movie is over. I don’t have a complete hatred of cellphones, but I believe that most people would still view a movie as a time when you are expected to: 1) be silent; and 2) be more or less still (i.e. in general, don’t distract people who are there to focus on the movie). My general point is that courtesy is something that more and more people seem to understand less and less, and I think that is sad. Having some basic compassion for other people, thinking about other people and their convenience over your own, is not necessarily a bad thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-jammer-your-opinion/258631.md?page=5)