Re:Sen. McCaskill to FAA Chief: Fix Electronic Device Rules ...
by ams6110 on Thursday December 13, 2012 @08:52AM
(#4915645)
So how come in a meeting room at a conference, with maybe 200 people actively using multiple wireless devices plus WiFi access points broadcasting, nobody's computers are affected? Are avionics really that sensitive to environmental RF interference?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Sen. McCaskill to FAA Chief: Fix Electronic Device Rules ...
by gnaffle on Thursday December 13, 2012 @01:12PM
(#4917114)
Those devices are all transmitting at low power, usually to a WiFi / cell base station nearby. The issue here is when several devices are transmitting on high power at the same time. Also, a computer is a single shielded device with most data running on a single motherboard and a few cables. Avionics are well shielded, but the cables and antennas run the length of the airplane and there's a _lot_ of devices in a typical setup (ADF, VHF NAV/COM, GPS, TCAS/ADS-B to mention some, all of it duplicated for redundancy), so the chances of one of them being affected is a bit higher.