Re: SHUT THE CELL UP !

"Linda Evans" <levans@comcastx.net> wrote in message
news:42196526.F0336269@comcastx.net...
> SHUT THE CELL UP
>
> By ANGELA MONTEFINISE
>
> February 20, 2005 -- Can you hear me now?
>
> Unsuspecting cellphone users may find themselves saying that
> more often now that cellphone jammers - illegal gizmos that
> interfere with signals and cut off reception - are selling
> like hotcakes on the streets of New York.
>
> "I bought one online, and I love it," said one jammer owner
> fed up with the din of dumb conversations and rock-and-roll
> ringtones.
>
> "I use it on the bus all the time. I always zap the idiots
> who discuss what they want from the Chinese restaurant so
> that everyone can hear them. Why is that necessary?"
>
> He added, "I can't throw the phones out the window, so
> this is the next best thing."
>
> Online jammer seller Victor McCormack said he's made
> "hundreds of sales" to New Yorkers.
>
> "The interest has gone insane in the last few years. I get
> all sorts of people buying them, from priests to police officers."
>
> Jammers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from portable
> handhelds that look like cellphones to larger, fixed models
> as big as suitcases.
>
> Their sole goal is to zip inconsiderate lips. The smaller
> gadgets emit radio frequencies that block signals anywhere
> from a 50- to 200-foot radius. They range in price from
> $250 to $2,000.
>
> But don't expect to find jammers at the local Radio Shack -
> they're against Federal Communications Commission regulations
> because they interfere with emergency calls and the public
> airwaves. They are illegal to buy, sell, use, import or advertise.
>
> A violation means an $11,000 fine, but the FCC's Enforcement
> Bureau has yet to bust one person anywhere in the country.
>
> "This is not a crime that they're going after," said Rob
> Bernstein, deputy editor at New York City-based Sync magazine.
>
> He said jammers are here, and their use is multiplying.
>
> "Right now, there's a growing curiosity about jammers in
> the United States and New York," Bernstein said. "There's
> no better way to shut up a loudmouth on the phone, so
> people definitely want them and are finding ways to get them."
>
> One way is at a spy shop on Third Avenue, which sells
> medium-sized jammers out of a back room for $1,500. The
> sales clerk there said he had sold jammers to a 50-year-old
> man who bought one to use on the Long Island Rail Road, and to
> restaurateurs.
>
> Folks who run auto auctions also buy them to stop people from
> chit-chatting about prices and rigging their bids, the clerk said.
>
> An employee at a West Village spy store said the shop also
> sells jammers, but only to people from other countries.
>
> One local purchaser bought a portable jammer last year, and
> said he likes using it at Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island.
>
> "One time I followed this guy around for 20 minutes," he
> said. "I kept zapping him and zapping him, until finally he
> threw the phone on the floor. I couldn't stop laughing. It
> was so cool."
>
Sounds like fun!