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Bluetooth on an Airplane?
bblazer asks: "Since I travel quite a lot, I am very familiar with the warnings about cell phone use on an airplane (could be bunk, but I still respect it and those around me). But what about using Bluetooth? I just got off an Alaska Airlines flight where the flight attendant said that we were not permitted to use any device that sends or receives a radio signal. I often use the bluetooth features of my PowerBook and Treo while onboard a plane (you can have the Treo on without having the cell phone on), or I set up a mini-network with others I may be traveling with. Could Bluetooth cause any problems, or is this something I need not worry about?"
So explain why radios and TVs are banned -- am I somehow sucking extra radio waves into the plane? Does the low quality of typical FM broadcasts annoy the flight crew into suicide?
Are the afraid that my radio will start transmitting? If they are, what's to say that it's any safer when it's off -- it's not supposed to transmit in any state, and "off" is hardly the same as "power disconnected" on most modern devices.
The whole thing is bunk and anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes studying electronics know it. Yes, you can cause harmful interference with common electronic devices, even those that aren't intended to transmit. You could also short out a set of D-cells and start a fire in the cabin, which would be at least as bad and at least as easy, but I am allowed to use D-cell batteries in a plane at any altitude.