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[–] 28 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Is that why cell phone connections have been so weak lately?

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  • [–] [S] 43 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    Radio is affected by solar activity because many radio frequencies, especially those used by long-distance or shortwave radio, depend on the Earth's ionosphere for reflection, which is disrupted by solar flares. Cellular phones, however, use higher frequency bands (UHFVHF) that are not reflected by the ionosphere; instead, they transmit via a line-of-sight connection between the phone and a cell tower, making them much less susceptible to solar interference.

    https://www.taitcommunications.com/en/about-us/news/geomagnetic-storm-impacts-radio-communications-power-grids

    https://www.wmar2news.com/weather/weather-blogs/last-nights-solar-flare-did-not-cause-the-cell-phone-outage

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/02/26/att-cellphone-outage-solar-flares-fact-check/72715063007/

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Our phones really use uhf/vhf? Dang. I'm a ham nerd but my radio knowledge doesn't really extend beyond those bands.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Mobile phones use UHF and SHF, where GSM is on the lower end of the spectrum (900/1800MHz) and 5G on the higher end. The newest WiFi standard is at 6GHz.

    5G can go as high as 71GHz, just not in mobile phones yet

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    What services might people have noticed being unusable because of this?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Planes can talk on multiple frequencies, only some of which will be messed up, and not for long. Solar flares are of short duration, and once they stop hitting the earth, equilibrium in the ionosphere is restored fairly quickly.

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