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Re: wearable necessity?

From: <>
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 23:10:59 +0100 (CET)

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Eric Laforest writes:

[...]

(I've tried operating a Garmin 25 in many locations, including a
 passenger plane, and I wouldn't get *any* signal on a plane. But I have
 a growing suspicion of owning a particularly recalcitrant unit)

 > I though so too....
 > 
 > I brought my radio setup with me on a trip to British Columbia so
 > I'd have emergency radio and so the guys at work would have a laugh
 > tracking me over APRS...so naturally I want to try the GPS on the plane.
 > Being sometimes a really moral person <grin> I asked the stewardess if
 > she could ask the pilot if a GPS receiver was OK to operate.
 > She came back with the reply, looking very serious, that I shouldn't
 > ever operate such a thing in a plane.

A GPS doesn't radiate much, though it does contain a DSP (it would be
ill advised to do so, as it has to pick up very faint signals). But
you mentioned a radio? I don't have net connection up right now, so I
don't know what ARPS is, but you should absolutely, positively avoid
radiating anything radio with any noticeable RF power within a
plane. I shudder to think what even a 5 W source could accomplish to
essentially unshielded digital electronics in focus of a waveguide. If
I was the pilot I'd lynch you, and probably get away with it in court.

 > This left me *totally* puzzled.
 > Next time I'll ask again anyway, for I suspect either miscommunication
 > or genuine misinformation on the part of the pilot/stewardess.
 > I just can't stand absolute statements without underlying explanation.

You seem to be oblivious of the fact that most of our civilization
currently operates by ritualized canned algorithms, devised by
(hopefully) tech-savvy people in charge. It is also imo best not to
raise suspicions of the marginally tech-savvy people. I once
transported a disassembled (desktop) computer in hand luggage, and (in
the retrospect rather stupidly) brought on some attention of security
on moi by nonchalantly dropping things like "Lockerbie" "Semtex" and
"gas chromatography/mass spectrography" when the security people were
wiping down the hard drive parts and motherboard with clean cloth for
analysis (whether with canines or analytics, I was unable to find
out).

Never, ever volunteer nonessential information to algorithmically
controlled people. Much mutual bafflement results, which wastes time
and requires lots of explanations, which may lead to more
explanations, etc.

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