AES responded to Marcus Didius Falco who quoted a Wireless Week article:
In article , Marcus Didius Falco
> wrote:
>
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>>
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>> Study: Consumers Oppose Cell Phones in Flight
>> By Susan Rush
>> April 8, 2005
>> news@2 direct
>> Worried about "air rage" and constant phone calls, 67 percent of air
>> travelers would prefer current airborne cell phone restrictions remain
>> in place, according to a new air passenger poll.
>> For more information go to:
>>
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> I don't know whether I'd have the guts (or the rudeness) to carry
> through on this, but if I found myself on a long flight forced to
> listen to endless cell phone conversations from all around me, I'd be
> greatly tempted to pull out a "boom-box" tape player and switch it on
> with some possibly unpleasant music or audio at similar volume in > retaliation.
Another solution is to get a pair of noise-reducing headphones. There are several types, including one, designed for drummers in rock bands, that gives 29 decibels of passive noise reduction. Others use "active" noise reduction, which is tuned to reduce jet noise, but not necessarily conversation.
These have inputs so you can listen to the movie, your iPod or tape player, or whatever (your white noise machine?).
Flying, which used to be a moderately pleasant occasion to relax,
> read, work, or just sleep, has become a more than sufficiently
> unpleasant experience in recent years. If cell phone users are going
> to pollute the audio environment in the cabin sufficiently to make it
> even more unpleasant for others, surely so can we music lovers ...
Frankly, flying has never been pleasant. But, if you really are a music lover, check out the headphones. There is a long series of articles and tests at:
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I've seen some of the noise-cancelling headphones at Walmart and Target. Also some are in the Brookstone catalog.
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The ones for session drummers, which are big and bulky, but may be what you want are at:
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There is also a Peltor "Racetunes" sold by American Optical that has about 22 dB in noise blocking. (The similar and slightly cheaper "Worktunes" model [which is much more widely available, including many large hardware stores] has an AM-FM radio but no provision for an input from other devices.)
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I
_used to_ find flying sort of enjoyable. Back in the 1960's I flew on various occassions to New York City for weekends (leave ORD on Friday night, return on Sunday afternoon or evening. To me, it was a lot of fun to be at 20-30 thousand feet, staring out the window at night in black nothingness, with a scotch and soda, and listening on the in-flight sound system to Beethoven or Bach or whatever classical stuff American Airlines was playing. The steaks and dinner salads they served were always good, and they always had plenty of wine. One flight I took from ORD to San Francisco in 1968 I think, I traveled in a 'double decker' (the best word I can think of for it) United Airlines flight with a bar on the upper level, but you could also eat dinner sitting up there at the bar instead of in your seat on the lower level if you wished. On the trip back from San Francisco late Sunday night, I remember it was very cold and damp, and the cab
_just barely_ got me to the airport in time for the flight home as it was starting to rain sort of hard. That night, the stewardess pushed a little cart full of very fancy sandwhiches and drinks back and forth in the aisle all the way home, and I gorged myself, since I had not had time to eat dinner first. And the airlines -- at least United and American -- always gave you all the food and drinks you wanted with their compliments, and free headphones to listen to music which you were expected to return to the stewardess when you departed.
I don't think it is nearly as nice these days, with people being herded like cattle through checkpoints; having your stuff dumped out all over a conveyor belt to be searched, etc. And I think the stewardesses are sort of rude now, aren't they? PAT]