Thursday, August 09, 2007

Everyone seems to be asking the question, does a cell phone interfere with ­­­­_______? Of course, I get the question turned around pretty often. Does _______ interfere with Radar Guns? Naturally, it was only a matter of time before these two questions were combined. Do cell phones interfere with radarguns to affect my speed reading?

Of course, I have to do a little research on this to make official claims to this argument so I’ll start with the basics. The FCC tests electronic devices to see what kind of emissions and interference they produce. Pretty much any electronic gizmo on the market is licensed to be interference free to some degree. Naturally, people will always dispute what a government agency claims, so I had to conduct my own experiment.

The equipment used in my experiment includes my Bushnell Speedster II Radar Gun, my Samsung SGH-P207 cell phone, and a paper airplane. I started the experiment by practicing throwing the paper airplane across the room while testing the speed with my radargun until I was consistently throwing it at 14mph. I then placed my phone (turned off) directly in the flight path of the airplane and tested my speed reading. It was 14mph – no change. I then repeated the procedure with the cell phone turned on. My radar gun still read 14mph. I repeated this 5 more times with the same results. Next, I repeated the procedure while in a call. I called my cell phone from my desk phone, kept the call active, and repeated my test. After 6 consecutive throws, my Speedster II read 14mph every time. I tried the experiment also while receiving a phone call (calling my cell from my desk) and placing the phone call (calling my desk from my cell and then throwing my cell in the flight path) with 6 throws for each mode. You’ll never guess the results… 14mph!

In conclusion: Stop looking for ways to cheat a radar gun, and drive the speed limit!

Ryan