Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/29/5g-wireless-may-mess-up-weathe.html
…
4 Likes
The rain follows the wi-fi.
7 Likes
Well, sure, weather prediction seems like it should benefit everyone. But, judging from how industry has responded to climate model projections, this will be another case of, “a few rich companies vs the needs of everybody else”. If the weather mattered to those who matter, the rest of us would have seen it by now.
5 Likes
Isn’t it literally the FCC’s job to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen?
/me reviews head of FCC
Oh…
Never mind 
17 Likes
No problem, really, we should just follow the lead of President Trump and move right to 6G
7 Likes
Someone on my neighborhood website periodically posts rants about how 5G is going to kill us all. Surprisingly, the disruption of weater forcasting hasn’t been part of her diatribes.
5 Likes
I’ll make a killing in bespoke tin foil hats.
5 Likes
5G is also going to blind ground based radio telescopes in that part of the spectrum. (These being the same telescopes that took that photo of a black hole just the other day.)
Source: conversation with a VLA scientist.
6 Likes
Very interesting. I’m surprised it can affect weather satellites so much (which I think are in geostationary orbit?), since 1) 5G spectrum bands have much lower range than 4G bands, maxing out at hundreds of meters, and 2) I thought the use of directional phased array antennas would minimize how much radiation is directed upwards, but I guess it doesn’t take much to mess up such sensitive systems. In any case, I’m glad they’re talking about this now before large-scale roll-out, hopefully we can address the problem with the right implementation details.
At 5 gs, our phones will weigh as much as a medium-sized cantaloupe or a full bottle of wine!
Weather forecasts will be the least of our worries!
-Not a scientist
9 Likes
“We wouldn’t know that that signal is not completely natural,”
Business opportunity! Maybe…
Sounds like it. It seems a modulated signal would be fairly easy to detect.
2 Likes
So weather forecasts will become wildly inaccurate and speculative, BUT we’ll be able to get that inaccurate weather information faster and in greater volumes and varied formats than before. Yep, the checks out with the progress of the internet in general.
1 Like
Well that’s how the aliens find me when they have to.
2 Likes
Where I live, weather forecasts are wildly inaccurate anyway
2 Likes
How are things in Toledo?
1 Like
There’s a similar problem already at play with 5 GHz spectrum and TDWR radar (which detects wind shear at airports). Any device using certain 5 GHz channels must use dynamic frequency selection, and switch to a different channel if it detects radar in use.
This, unfortunately, is why router/access point firmware is being increasingly locked down, because the occasional “the rules don’t apply to me” type will decide to run on these channels without using DFS. A typical result:
4 Likes
Suggest to her that 5G is a plot to hide the chemtrails from the weather satellites and see what happens…
2 Likes
Can you hear me now?
2 Likes
I’m ahead of you, and will corner the market in tin-foil umbrellas for those who no longer know when it is going to rain just water as opposed to water and, umm … 5G wifi rays?
1 Like
