5G or not 5G ?

[catfan 14,782]

Works for me !

 

[Commo 1,291]

Not on your Nellie!!!

[loppylugs 8,336]

I take it you don't trust it, Commo?   

[Commo 1,291]

To put it mildly Dave.!!!

[Brew 5,007]

I thought mine was reasonably quick. Mobile 41 and PC (hard wired) 92, (Ookla speedtest) - but over 600 is impressive...

 

When Virgin came to install  it  the guy had a 'works phone' and showed me a speed of over 200.  I think Virgin and the rest have a special server they connect to when testing just to impress customers. The measurement as far as I can see is 'burst' speed, not sustained.

 

Whilst people may have oodles of capacity  downloads can only go as fast as the server you're connected to can send it. A more realistic test would to download, not stream, a film and see how fast it is.

 

There is a site in Germany that has download test files (1Gb, 10 Gb and 100Gb). 10Gb took 32 mins. at 600 it would be a tad over 2:30 mins.

 

I could of course be totally wrong but In real life I rarely see downloads much over 25 and more often than not it's less.

[Stuart.C 428]

I've got Virgin 500mb at home.

1st day after it was installed 550mb.

Average after that was around 300mb that's plugged in, not Wifi.

 

Then Covid came and it's not been above 100mb since.

I'm on Virgin mobile unlimited as well, best I get is around 20mb on Wifi.

Turn off wifi on the phone and use 4G and it's barely 10mb. Claimed average by Virgin is 33mb

 

I've complained when I used to get a courtesy call and strangely it improves for a day then returns to the usual.

 

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

There is not a lot of difference between  4G and 5G signal, it's a little higher in frequency, but WTH, all micro wave frequencies are dangerous to living tissue, don't believe me, defeat the interlocks on your microwave oven, switch it on and put your hand inside.

OK, cell phones use much lower power, but long time use will lead to tumors, and I wouldn't recommend getting to close to cell phone tower antennas, but then the climb up there would be taxing anyway..LOL

Radar frequencies are lower than cell phone frequencies, and the rules with those are keep away unless you want cooking.

The "G" means generation.

[loppylugs 8,336]

I don't know what to believe.  There are lot of conflicting reports about user safety on various sites over the last few months.  Needless to say the phone companies downplay them.

As with most things there is usually a downside along with the benefit.  I don't need a frig' that's able to talk to the store and for everything I am doing the tech I already have is working fine.

I'm not keen on having a cell phone transmitter on a lamppost near my house.

It often seems as though it takes years for the long term effects of something to become public, eg. smoking.  By then the damage is done for many.

[catfan 14,782]

VM 200 mb deal, getting D/L of 220mb every time.

[Beekay 4,275]

Bloody glad I've only got a steam powered Doro.

I can phone, I can send texts, don't need owt else from a phone. Got a tablet and pc for owt else to do.

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

There was a lot of concern by folks having an amateur radio tower next door with triband Yagi antenna sitting on the top, radiating 100 watts to 1.5Kw on frequencies up to 30Mhz.

So the FCC brought in new regulations that required us hams to do an RF survey to make sure we didn't nuke our neighbours.

Irony is cell phones are in the Giga Hz ranges.

With just 5watts output on a handi talky (HT) on 70 Cm band, (440Mhz), we are advised to hold the radio so the antenna is at 180 degrees to our body, and 70cm is far lower than Cell phone frequencies.

The feller who stumbled on micro wave ovens was working near experimental radars when hos chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

I'm no fan of cell phones, I do carry one when I'm on the road for emergencies, so far I haven't used it once in almost nine months.

[loppylugs 8,336]

When I use mine, if I can I use headphones or put it on speaker phone so I don't have it right next to what little brain I still have left.  

[Brew 5,007]

15 hours ago, loppylugs said:

It often seems as though it takes years for the long term effects of something to become public, eg. smoking.  By then the damage is done for many.

 

It can be instantaneous LL. The U.S. military has an  'Active Denial System' that uses  radio waves to produce an intolerable heating effect in anyone caught in the beam. It uses a frequency only slightly higher than the top end of the 5G spectrum though the present 5G handsets are nowhere near this limit.

I think it has been deployed in Afghanistan.

 

[DJ360 6,353]

Am I right in assuming that it is wattage rather than frequency which is the major determinant of potential hazard?

[Brew 5,007]

Wattage  doesn't actually exist, it's a measurement of power. Microwaves (domestic) work by exciting water molecules  to creating heat. Human bodies particularly eyes and testes are vulnerable for the same reason. In this instance it's the frequency that counts although any radio wave given enough power will be damaging.

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

Of course wattage favours into the equation, although all RF is detrimental to health, the higher the wattage (power) the more damage and more danger there is.

The higher the frequency, the higher the danger, but higher frequency with higher power is going to cook you.

During maintenance of all antennas by personnel on commercial arrays, they are required to isolate the transmitter/s feeding those antennas. All right there are high voltages involved, even with low voltage transmitters of thousands of volts, as any ham who has been silly enough to run his fingers across a dipole antenna with his transmitter "keyed" up.. But the ever present danger is the RF energy itself. 5W RMS doesn't present any danger at 30Mhz or less, 5W @ 440Mhz there is danger to eyes and internal organs, 5W at 1.5Ghz is not to be recommended to be near the feed horn, you will get severe RF burns just being in front of the antenna.

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

I might add, 30Mhz at 5W RMS is pretty safe, but at 100W RMS upwards, I wouldn't recommend standing in front of the antenna.

 

[loppylugs 8,336]

All true, John.  I have been concerned about cell phones from their earliest days.  More so in recent years as conections with cancer have been reported on various websites.  I won't post a bunch of links.  Just google it if you want.   A lot of cancer clusters have been found on the top floors of apartments with antennas on the roof.