ECM helicopter to follow President Bush

News.com.au

MOBILE phone calls will be blocked in central Sydney during the APEC summit in September to protect US President George W. Bush from bomb attacks.

A helicopter equipped with signal-jamming equipment will shadow Mr Bush's presidential motorcade whenever he travels on the city's streets.

A box the size of a football field will surround the president in which mobile phones will be unable to operate.

I didn't really know that doing this was possible. It's a good idea, but I'd hate to be in that helicopter. Ionising or not, I'd want a 2 foot lead shield around me And if that system is small enough to be thrown into a helicopter, I wonder what range a ground based system would have. It would also have to be damn powerful to knock out quad-band mobiles.

Interesting. I'm not surprised they let word get out, though, because if cell phones didn't work in the area around Dubya', the conspiracies would fly fast and furious. I agree, though, if there really IS a serious threat, I would NOT want to be in that helicopter.

Cell phone jamming is not as difficult as one might think. There are plans available to build one that will jam a football stadium and it is only the size of a cigarette package. On the other hand a broad spectrum jammer that would in essence form a protective frequency envelope around a foreign local would take a small amount of intelligence gathering to determine frequency ranges desired, a digitally controlled bank of transmitters (or single sophisticated transmitter) & probably less radiated power than the radar that is installed on the aircraft.

Yeah, you can buy pocket cell phone jammers online. I'm not sure what the laws are regarding them, though.

Im not 100% certain, but im pretty sure there are always helicopters overhead when bush is cruising around in his motorcade. No doubt one or two of them are the ECM choppers.

So I dont think this is anything new.

my $0.02

CT

I'm going OT here, but is this technology used by US soldiers in Iraq? My understanding is that IEDs are often triggered by cellphones. If not, why not?

Fuggle