4 ms·

"I can’t imagine a Joe Blow citizen having that equipment to be used for anything other than malicious intent" Can tech savvy folks here talk about legitimate

"I can’t imagine a Joe Blow citizen having that equipment to be used for anything other than malicious intent" Can tech savvy folks here talk about legitimate uses for having such a device?

toiletaccount 5y ago
1a rights
- istingray 5y ago
  Please say more!
ummonk 5y ago
If I were trying to develop a jamming detector or jam-resistant device perhaps I’d order that device. But I wouldn’t turn it on in the middle of a suburb.
cryptonector 5y ago
As one of the comments above supposes, this may have been a misguided person thinking they'd be shielding themselves from 5g -- protecting themselves from cancer that might be caused by 5g. Obviously the jammer would hurt them more, if energy at those frequencies does hurt humans (60W is a lot to put into a 5g jamming!). Such an intent would not be malicious. Another possible use might be to try to dissuade neighbors and phone companies from using 5g in the area. This would mean taking one for the team for a while until they give up. Except they wouldn't give up -- they would go find the jammer and get them arrested. I can't think of a legitimate use for a 5g jammer.
- reshie 5y ago
  yes but it could just be mounted somewhere too then it would be about good detective work and people skills but wven then. it can be triangulated to a degree by its radius.
istingray 5y ago
"What does a cosmetology school just outside Dallas need with a 5W adjustable cell phone jammer? Blissful quiet in the classrooms, apparently." https://news.hitb.org/content/texas-beauty-schools-cell-phone-jammer-leads-25k-fine https://news.hitb.org/content/texas-beauty-schools-cell-phon... Something for a future YC startup to pursue?
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Blocking exam cheaters
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
    That's... actually a fairly decent use case for a signal jammer.
    - parineum 5y ago
      It really isn't. Cheating with cell phones is the same as cheating with a note card except the quality of information. They aren't less or more detectable than other forms of cheating so there's no need to specifically target phones. Teachers just need to continue doing what they've been doing for decades, looking for cheaters.
      - bsder 5y ago
        > It really isn't. Cheating with cell phones is the same as cheating with a note card except the quality of information. It really is. Most cheaters aren't going to assume that their phone is going to be blocked and store things locally. Please do realize that most cheaters are pretty stupid. However, that still doesn't make a jammer a good idea.
        AlexAndScripts 5y ago
        They will after the year above them tells them about it.
kook_throwaway 5y ago
I will admit that I fantasize about having a signal jammer every time someone on a phone nearly crushes me on my bike.
PeterisP 5y ago
The key issue is that any use case that sounds legitimate is still not really legitimate because, as a rule, it's illegal to operate a transmitter without a specific license and in almost every case the condition of that license is that you won't interfere with others. The difference asserted in that quotes is essentially between "willful malicious illegal activity" and "negligent illegal activity", there's no reasonable possibility that it would have been a legitimate use - as far as I understand, simply importing that particular device would already be illegal - there is an exemption in the rules (https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=a230935ff03941152fa14d9c22eb239d&mc=true&node=sp47.1.2.k&rgn=div6 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=a230935ff03941152f...) for "Three or fewer radio frequency devices are being imported for the individual's personal use" but that only applies to specific categories of devices and would not apply to that jammer.
swebs 5y ago
If someone's quadcopter keeps hanging around your windows at night, this would be a good way to knock it out of the sky.
- kortex 5y ago
  I wonder how effective simply piping the output of one of these cheapo jammers to a Yagi would be at disabling or simply "return to home" area denial-ing drones.
secondaryacct 5y ago
Burglary ?

"I can’t imagine a Joe Blow citizen having that equipment to be used for anything other than malicious intent" Can tech savvy folks here talk about legitimate uses for having such a device?

toiletaccount 5y ago

1a rights

istingray 5y ago
Please say more!

ummonk 5y ago

If I were trying to develop a jamming detector or jam-resistant device perhaps I’d order that device. But I wouldn’t turn it on in the middle of a suburb.

cryptonector 5y ago

As one of the comments above supposes, this may have been a misguided person thinking they'd be shielding themselves from 5g -- protecting themselves from cancer that might be caused by 5g. Obviously the jammer would hurt them more, if energy at those frequencies does hurt humans (60W is a lot to put into a 5g jamming!). Such an intent would not be malicious. Another possible use might be to try to dissuade neighbors and phone companies from using 5g in the area. This would mean taking one for the team for a while until they give up. Except they wouldn't give up -- they would go find the jammer and get them arrested. I can't think of a legitimate use for a 5g jammer.

reshie 5y ago
yes but it could just be mounted somewhere too then it would be about good detective work and people skills but wven then. it can be triangulated to a degree by its radius.

istingray 5y ago

"What does a cosmetology school just outside Dallas need with a 5W adjustable cell phone jammer? Blissful quiet in the classrooms, apparently." https://news.hitb.org/content/texas-beauty-schools-cell-phone-jammer-leads-25k-fine https://news.hitb.org/content/texas-beauty-schools-cell-phon... Something for a future YC startup to pursue?

ipaddr 5y ago
Blocking exam cheaters
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
  That's... actually a fairly decent use case for a signal jammer.
  - parineum 5y ago
    It really isn't. Cheating with cell phones is the same as cheating with a note card except the quality of information. They aren't less or more detectable than other forms of cheating so there's no need to specifically target phones. Teachers just need to continue doing what they've been doing for decades, looking for cheaters.
    - bsder 5y ago
      > It really isn't. Cheating with cell phones is the same as cheating with a note card except the quality of information. It really is. Most cheaters aren't going to assume that their phone is going to be blocked and store things locally. Please do realize that most cheaters are pretty stupid. However, that still doesn't make a jammer a good idea.
      - AlexAndScripts 5y ago
        They will after the year above them tells them about it.

kook_throwaway 5y ago

I will admit that I fantasize about having a signal jammer every time someone on a phone nearly crushes me on my bike.

PeterisP 5y ago

The key issue is that any use case that sounds legitimate is still not really legitimate because, as a rule, it's illegal to operate a transmitter without a specific license and in almost every case the condition of that license is that you won't interfere with others. The difference asserted in that quotes is essentially between "willful malicious illegal activity" and "negligent illegal activity", there's no reasonable possibility that it would have been a legitimate use - as far as I understand, simply importing that particular device would already be illegal - there is an exemption in the rules (https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=a230935ff03941152fa14d9c22eb239d&mc=true&node=sp47.1.2.k&rgn=div6 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=a230935ff03941152f...) for "Three or fewer radio frequency devices are being imported for the individual's personal use" but that only applies to specific categories of devices and would not apply to that jammer.

swebs 5y ago

If someone's quadcopter keeps hanging around your windows at night, this would be a good way to knock it out of the sky.

kortex 5y ago
I wonder how effective simply piping the output of one of these cheapo jammers to a Yagi would be at disabling or simply "return to home" area denial-ing drones.

secondaryacct 5y ago

Burglary ?