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AT&T, Verizon agree to delay 5G implementation at some airports

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By John BIERS

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So 5G isn't harmless, after all.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Japan Airlines and ANA is canceling 777 flights to Boston, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco and Seattle indefinitely based on the advice from Boeing.

The US 5G band auctioned off (only to large carriers, no small carriers were allowed to bid) is closer to the frequency used by radar altimeters for the past 50 years than in other countries, and the 5G power level is higher.

It's a disgrace that the FCC can't communicate with other governmental agencies and is only interested in the huge windfall from spectrum bidding. The head of the FCC has no technical experience whatsoever. She was an English literature and economics student.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Accurate radar altimeter data is crucial for Cat II and Cat III instrument approaches, automated flight guidance and control, auto throttle, flight directors, TCAS and many other vital functions. It's not a trivial thing.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@EgoSum: What "harm" do you think it does exactly? Very interested to know.

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The airlines have had years to test their equipment for interference and fix it. They've sat around and done nothing and now they are crying. This is lame.

This is nothing to do with 5G, this is about the airlines using poor quality equipment that is incorrectly screened against external interference.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

It takes years to get avionics approved through the FAA. It’s not poor quality equipment. It’s strictly a US issue because of the very narrow guard band between frequencies and power output. It’s not an issue in Japan or Europe.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The airlines have had years to test their equipment for interference and fix it. They've sat around and done nothing and now they are crying. This is lame.

A major part of the problem is that the power level AT&T and Verizon plan to use is many times greater than that used by other 5G systems around the world. The power is just too great and will bleed over into the radar altimeter return. It would be like a neighbor erecting a high powered radio transmitter next door to your home and having the signal bleed over onto your router or your TV.

Australian 5G is on a completely different band that doesn't interfere with anything at any airport or on any aircraft. South Korean 5G runs at about 5% of the power the US system will run on. France has buffer zones around their airports to prevent interference from 5G signals.

And obtw, it is not just the airlines that will suffer. This new 5G band overlaps GPS and some search radar bands used by the US military. It will screw up GPS signals everywhere it is used. The US DoD complained bitterly about this as did some US Senators but to no avail. The 5G crowd shouted them down and called them liars to their face.

What is called a CAT IIIB ILS (meaning Category IIIb Instrument Landing System) gives the aircraft an azimuth and glide slope to fly almost to touchdown. It uses the radar altimeter to determine something called "Decision Height" or DH for short, at which point the pilot has to see the runway or abort the approach. A Cat IIIb ILS approach takes the plane on autopilot down to 50 ft above ground level before the pilot has to eigher see the runway or abort, and the pilot only needs 150 feet visibility (less than the length of some big airliners !) to legally land the plane. 150 foot vis when you are moving along at 150 knots isn't much vis, barely enough to make out the centerline. A CatIIIc ILS has no visibility minimum or decision height, it basically puts the plane over the numbers below 50 feet and if the pilot can see any ground they can land. About all the pilot has left to do is pull the throttles back and flare but if you can't see anything you have to go around. Consider pilots are doing this in really bad weather often at night in wind and driving rain or snow to wet or icy runways in a very big airplane with hundreds of passengers and crew depending on everything working right. If the radalt is providing an incorrect reading at 50 feet above the ground you can have a very bad night very quickly. It is not a trivial thing to land any aircraft in bad weather and everything must work right to do it safely.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Cool story bro.

GPS uses 1575Mhz

5G CBand, which is what is being discussed here uses 3.7GHz to 4Ghz.

Not even close.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

5G C-Band may affect other electronic devices of airplanes. I'm so scared to travel by airplane.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Cool story bro.

GPS uses 1575Mhz

5G CBand, which is what is being discussed here uses 3.7GHz to 4Ghz.

Not even close.

Sigh. The Ligado 5G tech approved by the FCC also uses L band. Read and learn.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/operations/496555-pentagon-official-fcc-decision-on-5g-threatens-gps-national

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The bandwidth sold for 5G is a problem for mariners and for weather forecasting. The 24GHz bandwidth sold will interfere with the 23.8GHz frequency used by NOAA satellites to measure water vapor in the atmosphere. There is no other frequency that can be used for that measurement. Spillover from the adjacent 5G network will lead to about 77% data loss, greatly degrading weather forecasting accuracy, which has major implications for marine operations and aviation, both of which depend on accurate weather forecasts.

https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2021/february/dont-mess-with-gps

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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