Another stupid question

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Utter baloney. How can a building absorb energy from a battery?

You just hadn't recharged your cell phone recently.

 

Some hospitals these days use wireless monitoring and can be sensitive to interference. As such, many also have shielding on the exterior walls to help reduce that interference. While the phone itself may not be in the frequency range to cause direct problems, its signals will be shielded from the outside which makes the phone search for a signal. This search uses battery power and thus will drain the battery after what appears to be a short time.

Dan

 

[David Platt]

Utter baloney. How can a building absorb energy from a battery?

You just hadn't recharged your cell phone recently.

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

(1) Cellphones will tend to raise or lower their transmit power when
"talking" to the cell tower, based on signal-strength feedback
from the cell-tower controller. If the hospital building is well
shielded but not entirely radio-opaque, some cellphones might
increase their TX power to stay connected to their network, and
this could run the battery down faster than if they were out in
"clear air".

(2) The nurse might have been making up a story ("save your battery")
instead of saying something like "Please shut down your cellphone,
since we have sensitive electronic equipment in some of the rooms
around here and your phone might interfere with them." She may
have learned that people are more likely to comply with a "turn
the cellphone all the way off" request, if it's excused by a
statement that seems to be in the person's own best interest
("save your battery from being killed").

 

[Gareth Magennis]

wrote in message
news:8dffdb55-d942-422c-8e5e-033d31f161b2@googlegroups.com...

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the
building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses
advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it,
"otherwise the building will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery
state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm
embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to
this? Lenny




I regularly work a 19 hour gig under some railway arches in London. Even
though I have to make sure my phone is fully charged before I enter the
building at 2pm, it is usually pretty much on zero by the time I leave
around 9am.

I believe this is because most of the club has no cellphone signal, but
parts of it does.
So as i wander around, the phone spends most of the time using up its
battery trying to find a signal, polling the transmitter, logging on to the
system when it finds a signal, or whatever it actually does in reality when
it finds itself in such a dire constantly on/off reception situation.

Perhaps your Hospital is similar.


Gareth.

 

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

You think they're not? Lenny

 

[Maynard A. Philbrook Jr.]

In article <8dffdb55-d942-422c-8e5e-033d31f161b2@googlegroups.com>,
captainvideo462009@gmail.com says...

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

Cell phones may raise the output power if the cell sites they are
receiving all appear to be low in signal. I really think it has much to
do with the model phone you have.

As for the rest of it, be cautions, you may have dementia setting
in! Which makes it easy for people to believe anything! Hell, they
may even believe aliens are flying around above us, right now!

Jamie

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:26:05 -0700 (PDT), captainvideo462009@gmail.com
wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been
in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when
one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my
cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building
will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and
the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it
sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this
just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

True. My guess(tm) is that there's no cell phone signal inside the
building. Your cell phone will continuously transmit at full power
trying to connect to a cell tower that's not there. The algorithm is
stupid and just repeatedly tries to connect until the battery is
depleted. For GSM, the phone does not know which time slot to use, so
it turns the receiver on full time, depeleting the battery even
faster. When we had an area wide fiber outage which killed the local
cell sites, my cell phone battery went from nearly full charge to
totally dead in about 3 hours.

However, you don't have to remove the battery. Just turn off the cell
phone.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Phil Allison]

<captainvideo462009@gmail.com>

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the
building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses
advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it,
"otherwise the building will kill it".


** Just turning the phone off is enough.

Bet there is no signal in the building and / or they have jammed it.



..... Phil

 

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

How many watts does a cellphone transmitter output on full power? Lenny

 

[Jon Elson]

captainvideo462009@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the
building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses
advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it,
"otherwise the building will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery
state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm
embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to
this? Lenny

My boss has a cell phone that kills the battery in as little as 30 minutes
when he is in our lab. It has a LOT of electronic gear, and is mostly
underground. The phone tries to keep in contact with the cell tower
and needs to crank up the transmitter to full to be heard.

They put microcells around the campus and I think his phone no longer
has this problem.

Jon

 

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

That's interesting because I usually keep my phone in my breast pocket. I don't know how I feel about the damn thing irradiating that part of my body at frequencies considered to be just below microwave while continuously stumbling around aimlessly seeking a cell tower just because I'm unfortunate enough to be in a dead spot. Maybe the answer is to just leave the miserable thing off until you really need to use it. Hey people always seemed to be able to find Perry Mason when he was on the road. He was always taking calls on other peoples phones...Lenny

 

[Gareth Magennis]

wrote in message
news:a83aa69f-58f0-42a3-8bda-eb5914bd7a20@googlegroups.com...

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the
building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses
advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it,
"otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery
state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm
embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to
this? Lenny

How many watts does a cellphone transmitter output on full power? Lenny




2W for 3G phones.


Gareth.

 

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

"Field test mode" sounds very interesting but I doubt that my Motorola Razor has that function. Lenny

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2014 13:45:48 -0700 (PDT), captainvideo462009@gmail.com
wrote:

>How many watts does a cellphone transmitter output on full power? Lenny

Here's the power budget I worked out for proposed Verizon cell site:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/coverage/VZW-water-plant/Verizon%20Tower%20Brookdale.xls>
With everything turned on full blast, on all frequencies, on all 3
sectors, that's 43,000 watts EIRP.

Of course, it never gets that high because the cell site would
probably blow a fuse or something. Adaptive power control also limits
the handset transmit power to something between 20 to 100 mw into an
antenna with maybe -3dB gain. Cell site transmit is typically in the
same range, but with an antenna with considerably more gain. FCC
rules limit the TX EIRP power to something around 1-3 watts depending
on band. If you drive into the "field test mode" on your handset, you
can see the transmit power level.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2014 19:55:48 -0700 (PDT), captainvideo462009@gmail.com
wrote:

>"Field test mode" sounds very interesting but I doubt that my Motorola Razor has that function. Lenny

Ask, and ye shall receive... (Push and ye shall transmit).

All the Romotola radios have a field test mode:
<http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/uploads/docs/FieldTestModes06142010%20wilson004.pdf>
<http://www.wpsantennas.com/pdf/testmode/fieldtestmodes.pdf>
<http://www.tessco.com/yts/customerservice/techsupport/datasheets/pdf/FieldTestModes.pdf>
There are about 10 different phones with the name RAZR, so you'll need
to be more specific. Be careful as you can easily brick the phone if
you punch the wrong buttons.



--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

The phone is an old Razor with Cingular markings on it. A friend had this in his drawer for years and wasn't using it anymore. He gave it to me to replace my Razor that had hit the pavement one too many times. I used the old ATT Sim card in the Cingular phone. On boot it comes up with Cingular logos but works fine on the ATT network. The model number, (I think this is what you need to identify the phone) is: V3(G8/9/18/19). I don't know what all those number mean, perhaps you do. There are several more numbers. I can post them also if need be. Thanks, Lenny

 

[josephkk]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2014 16:46:40 -0700 (PDT), captainvideo462009@gmail.com
wrote:

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014 3:26:05 PM UTC-4, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:
I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".



Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

That's interesting because I usually keep my phone in my breast pocket. I don't know how I feel about the damn thing irradiating that part of my body at frequencies considered to be just below microwave while continuously stumbling around aimlessly seeking a cell tower just because I'm unfortunate enough to be in a dead spot. Maybe the answer is to just leave the miserable thing off until you really need to use it. Hey people always seemed to be able to find Perry Mason when he was on the road. He was always taking calls on other peoples phones...Lenny

Hmmph, he kept his secretary (Della Street) informed of his whereabouts
and the phone number there.

?-)

 

[josephkk]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2014 13:15:50 -0700, dplatt@coop.radagast.org (David Platt)
wrote:

Utter baloney. How can a building absorb energy from a battery?

You just hadn't recharged your cell phone recently.

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

(1) Cellphones will tend to raise or lower their transmit power when
"talking" to the cell tower, based on signal-strength feedback
from the cell-tower controller. If the hospital building is well
shielded but not entirely radio-opaque, some cellphones might
increase their TX power to stay connected to their network, and
this could run the battery down faster than if they were out in
"clear air".

(2) The nurse might have been making up a story ("save your battery")
instead of saying something like "Please shut down your cellphone,
since we have sensitive electronic equipment in some of the rooms
around here and your phone might interfere with them." She may
have learned that people are more likely to comply with a "turn
the cellphone all the way off" request, if it's excused by a
statement that seems to be in the person's own best interest
("save your battery from being killed").

+2

?-)

 

[josephkk]

On Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:26:05 -0700 (PDT), captainvideo462009@gmail.com
wrote:

I had a procedure done in a hospital this morning and I had been in the building for about 30 minutes before we started, when one of the nurses advised me to remove the battery from my cell phone because as she put it, "otherwise the building will kill it".

Perhaps it was coincidence but I then looked at my phone and the battery state of charge was in the toilet. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm embarrassed to even ask, was this just bullshit or is there anything to this? Lenny

Insufficeint data.

?-)