re: #163 A Cranky One

True enough when the phone isn’t moving. However, when mobile phones are actually mobile, a lot of signaling occurs as the phone moves from one antenna to another on a tower or between cell towers, to maintain the call.

Yep. That’s when they change frequency. Almost invariably, the handset. But some femtocells may actually do it the other way around.

Cell phones can actually be talking to multiple antennas/towers at the same time; the downstream systems pick the best of the incoming signals as the main signal.

Yep. The base station has one transceiver (transmitter and receiver) for the allocated frequency, while neighboring base stations listen to the receive frequencies of their neighbors and at minimum report back timing and signal strength (this is how E911/E112 works).

Having said that, I’ve seen no real evidence that cell phone radiation is a problem.

This is anecdotal, but the only time I’ve encountered issues is when I’ve used one with wet hair and the frequency likely being aound 1.7-2.4 GHz…

I also note that if electromagnetic signals are a health issue, then we’re conducting a grand experiment. Most people have no idea how saturated we are with EMFs (think not only cell towers but microwave relays, TV and radio stations, radio networks used by utilities, police, fire, etc., smart meters and cars, and on and on).

Also, it is known that higher electrical or magnetic field levels do have an effect, but those are on the level of “Who’d willingly stand in such a field anyway?”