cell phone use around radios

[rgriffin]

Currently admin has banned use of cell phones in the 9-1-1 center as they have heard somewhere that the phone can
make the radios fail when paging. According to our radio tech this is near to impossible. Has anyone had a radio failure due to cell
phone usage???

[MrJim911]

I have not heard of a radio failing, but with the constant updates a cell phone gets they will routinely cause radios to pick up the static of the update. Cell phones in my center must be in airplane mode and thus unable to send receive calls or texts. No reason to have them at the console anyway.

[Lifeguard911]

I am the lone wolf around my center as I don't own a cellphone of any type. Everyone else here does though. I don't like it because it always seems there is a ringtone of some sort going off or I can turn around to ask my partner a question about a call and they will be texting someone and tell me to wait. Our center has rules about cellphone use but it doesn't seem to matter as our supervisors all do the same thing. I agree that the phones should either be turned off or in airplane mode when you are at work.

[rgriffin]

Regarding the cell phone use in dispatch. I was not implying that we sit around and text and answer our phone while trying to dispatch. The issue has come up if that someone (officer, SAR coordinator,Sheriff etc) are in dispatch and their cell phone rings that it could cause a radio failure. Was just wondering if anyone had heard of this happening.
thanks

[mc1100]

Our policy is that cell phones need to be turned off... because a fellow employee complained they were hearing interference in their headset, and thought it might be texting in the comm center. Our radio tech says this is true. He says that cell phones and texting can cause interference, but we don’t believe it. We also have several people in the center that use handheld games, e-books (kindle), and we can bring in our private laptop (we have one person writing a book) ...

any way... wouldn’t it be safe to say that any "electronic device" can interfere with radio frequencies? I am curious to hear from any radio expert that can and or say one way or another …. That texting and cell phones can or can not interfere with the radio transmissions…..

[jim202]

Having worked in the radio servicing, engineering and installation / repair field for the last 45 or more years, there is not much
that I haven't seen or done. I currently work for a company that makes radio interoperability gateways. This work takes me
into 911 dispatch centers around the country on a constant basis. Each center has their own rules. On the most part, I have
found that cell phones are inside the dispatch areas. I can not answer if these are there covertly or legally. However, I do
not see much if any reaction of the dispatch equipment from the cell phones.

What I do see is that all the computers causing problems to the VHF radio frequencies. To some extent, this may extend into
some of the UHF radio channels. Many centers do outlaw the use of the radio system radios inside the dispatch centers. The
reason for this is that keying up a two way portable inside the center has a good success of causing at least feedback in any
speaker that may be live. By keying the radio inside the center, it could also cause one or more computers to lock up or fail.
This would then cause the operator to have to reboot the computer effected.

The use of a cell phone inside the center can be detected mostly by noises coming out of the computer speakers. The Nextel
/ Sprint phones do this on a regular basis. Most computer speakers are not built with any RF shielding and you can hear the
Nextel phone causing the speaker to emit the rapid pulsing when the phone is about to receive a call or is updating it's
affiliation with the cellular system. You have to be within about 4 feet or less of the speakers for this to be heard.

Hope this provides you with some insight on the issue of cell phones in the dispatch center. It may have caused more questions
than it answered.

Jim

Our policy is that cell phones need to be turned off... because a fellow employee complained they were hearing interference in their headset, and thought it might be texting in the comm center. Our radio tech says this is true. He says that cell phones and texting can cause interference, but we don’t believe it. We also have several people in the center that use handheld games, e-books (kindle), and we can bring in our private laptop (we have one person writing a book) ...

any way... wouldn’t it be safe to say that any "electronic device" can interfere with radio frequencies? I am curious to hear from any radio expert that can and or say one way or another …. That texting and cell phones can or can not interfere with the radio transmissions…..

[Dave]

I have to agree with hearing static on the headset. Although cellphones have been ruled a no-no in the center, it doesnt make a difference apparently. Sometimes I will tell my co-worker that her phone is ringing, not because i hear it (its on vibrate) but because I hear the static in my headset.