Your question answered...:
Cell phones are nasty nasty. It's not a problem if they are just "on" but if they start getting a signal...i.e. a call...HOlY interference. Radios get scratchy and the Nav. stuff can get a little whack...I know this because we tried ours once on a nice clear day while repositioning an airplane (no passengers). My phone wasn't too bad, but my Cap's was Awful...(he had AT&T).
The Airphone you refer to with high prices have a shielded antanna and are properly adjusted to an aircraft antanne and thus the interference is disapated and usable...the high fee is the luxury for calling your buddy from 7 miles high.
Oh...to prove that celly's cause problems...the final report on a CrossAir (Swiss) commuter aircraft Crash sighted that an active cell phone (uknown if it inadvertantly depressed a hot key to send a call when hitting some bumps) in the cargo hold caused interference during final approach and led the plane off course crashing short of the runway. I beleive that was 3-4 years ago...the report is bout 2 1/2 years old.
Hope that answers your question..hehe
and to stay on thread topic
C89.5 suXx0rs
Cheers
___________________
"I'd like to buy a techno song."
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