"I am pretty amazed that any
      calls got through."

I guess I am the only one that picked up
the fact from a couples of interviews with one
of the recipients of those calls a day ago that
*those* two partys used the *Airphone* service
aboard the aircraft to make the call. In fact,
Alice Hoglan corrected the interviewer (once
that I saw) and said she used the 'Airphone'
service.

I suspect that was the case in several of other
instances as well, but all you hear from the
press (and posters on most boards) is 'cell phone'.

It also grinds me when these same script-readers
refer to CVRs and FDRs as 'black boxes' ...

Jim



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Jordan" <ian@TWINGLES.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: [OT]:cell phone locating


> I would think that the answer would be no. There really is no way to know
> the altitude of a cell phone from above, and without the altitude data,
any
> angle that the satellite had on looking down at the target would cause a
> very big error as to location. If you were directly above then altitude
not
> a factor, but then again, if you're directly above you already know where
> the target signal is, right?
>
> However, three cell sites on the ground should give you a very nice fix,
but
> without the altitude. 4 sites give you altitude nicely. This is one of the
> ways that the new E-911 services will/do work. But remember, overall, cell
> phones aren't even really designed to work above the ground or at 500+
MPH.
> I am pretty amazed that any calls got through.
>
> --Ian
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alice Campbell" <electrifried@GEOLOGIST.COM>
> To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 1:49 PM
> Subject: [OT]:cell phone locating
>
>
> > Some months ago there was a thread on jamming cell phones.  Now I am
> wondering how to get the spatial coordinates of a given cell phone.  Is it
> technically feasible to identify a single cell phone from a satellite or
> other high point?
> >
> > Maybe you can guess what I'm wondering.
> >
> > alice
> > --

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