B.C. rescuers use helicopter-mounted cell tower to find missing man | Hacker News Reader

B.C. rescuers use helicopter-mounted cell tower to find missing man

cbc.ca

61 pointswestcanna10 comments

Huh. So, making cell site simulators be more useful than just for doing wholesale surveillance?

Wonder if the goal is as wholesome (tool for rescue) as it seems, or there is some sort of commodization of this sort of tools being done, and so should not be subject to any special restrictions or regulation.

Wow, when I'm hiking, my phone is always on flight mode. Being far from cell towers drains the battery pretty quick. If I was lost, even more so.

Would this work for a phone that is in airplane mode? Meaning does airplane mode - which we all like to use to save battery power at times - still broadcast an IMEI beacon?

The whole point of flight mode is to prevent the phone transmitting...

And yet it's a reasonable question, because who's to say that it isn't slightly more complicated? Almost everything else is after all:

“Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) made a recommendation on the use of electronic devices in airplane mode—cellular telephony must be disabled, while Wi-Fi may be used if the carrier offers it.”

--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane_mode

Pretty sure personal use of WiFI was banned (along with other RF devices) until the carries started selling WiFI service in planes.

Airplane mode is to satisfy the FCC, not FAA.

The whole restriction about “large electronic” devices (like laptops) below 10000ft has nothing to do with RF or radar — it’s simply because they are bulky and hinder movement.

The whole thing is stupid.

They seem to have no problem with someone laying out as Monopoly board game below 10000ft… Or read a newspaper… But God forbid someone use an iPad…

I think it’s more an enormous band-aid because cell networks were too afraid of the infrastructure effects of devices traveling at 500mph, perhaps especially with poor signal quality.

If it was a safety issue, wireless devices would be outright banned.

Dangerous chemicals, weapons, and such are not allowed. They can’t just be “off” in a box because accidents do happen.

Think nobody forgets to turn airplane mode on?

At this point, I’m really not sure why we keep up the ruse.

We live in a bizarro world where a small bottle of water is a bigger security threat than an RF transmitter.

I really like having the ability to turn off my device's radio transmitters, even if the name "airplane mode" no longer makes sense for it.

Seems like a modern iPhone or Pixel 9 or greater or S24/25 user could just use satellite service and that will eventually be available for everybody.

MathWorks has a press piece that has technical details.

https://www.mathworks.com/company/mathworks-stories/signal-p...

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