Cell phone blocking using household items ( conspiracy )

submitted by Darthwibble

Hi all. So basically, I want to see how easy it would be to make a small faraday cage, or similar, to prevent a cell phone from sending or receiving any data of any sort. I have heard of using a microwave, yes. And I have heard of people putting their cell phones into the fridge too. I would like something smaller, simpler. I picture a metal box with a lid that I can set it into. Additionally, something similar for travel, preferably a thing that could fit in a pocket, with bonus points if it could be somewhat flexible.

Yes, I know it sounds crazy. I am just curious what others think about this sort of stuff. I currently just turn my phone off and not worry about it when its not in use, especially at night. Although the more paranoid part of me thinks that turning it off isn't enough.

What are your thoughts?

Bubbha

Put it in your microwave oven. DO NOT TURN IT ON. It is designed as a Faraday cage so that no microwave radiation leaks

Amadameus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

Simple faraday cage: Wrap a ziploc pouch in a few layers of aluminum foil, then give it an outer layer of duct tape so it's durable. Now make a second pouch big enough to fit the second one inside, like a cigar case. Stick your cell phone or any electronics you like inside, there won't be any RF coming out unless you left gaps. You might want to put a fabric pouch inside the inner bag, if you're worried about a sharp foil edge scratching your iGalaxy SXL Mega+

If you do this to a backpack or duffel bag you've made a "magic bag" that shoplifters use for tagged items. In theory you should only need two or three layers, but in practice they often add ten or more.

Be warned, your phone will respond by ramping up its antenna, searching for any trace of a signal. This will run your battery out real quick, so switch to Airplane Mode and it will stop polling for towers. If you have something like LLAMA for Android then you can attach multiple behaviors to one button and make it easy to hit.

DishingShitLikeA

You could do it for a penny. Wrap it in foil and stick a piece of that foil (or an attached wire) into the ground of an electrical socket. Its the bottom half-round one! (US sockets)

TrevorLahey

Place it in a small cooking pot (saucepan) and put the lid on the pot. Put the pot in the oven and close the door. Wrap your house in aluminum foil. Convince your HOA that a golf course-style wire mesh netting to cover the entire neighborhood is needed.

Darthwibble

Instructions unclear. Aluminum foil is now covering my stove. Dinner is ruined.....

SarMegahhikkitha

According to this AMA doing stuff to gain your privacy just draws massive attention to yourself, when actually privacy is completely irrecoverably dead. Wouldn't you want your cell phone in a soundproof box anyway, since it would just transmit recorded sound it stored while it was offline?

Darthwibble

Missed it when it happened, and much of it has been deleted. I figure buying something specifically to block signals to and from a phone could cause a red flag. But honestly, just posting this question could draw attention as it is.

Amadameus

You can make inductive arguments, but it really depends on how paranoid you are.

If you live in a place where cell signal isn't perfect, then dropping in and out of connectivity won't be unusual.

Darthwibble

That looks to be a good option, but some of the reviews claim it is hit and miss. However, I will probably have to get one and test it out, for science and stuff.
Thanks for the link.

Le_Squish

I'm a seamstress and this is something in the quenue to experiment with. I know aluminium foil can block some near field stuff and aluminum fabrics do exist. But I don't have the equipment to test the effectiveness of any pouch or case I could make though....

Amadameus

Strips of aluminum foil and fabric glue would work very nicely, I think!

If you make one of these please let me know, I'd love to see the design.

Le_Squish

I'm thinking of actual aluminum fabric. I have a machine that can sew it and there is a shop in town that lets you rent their laser cutter by the minute. Guess, I'll bump this up in the research quenue.

Amadameus

I can't speak to the aluminum fabric, but I can tell you one thing in particular:

The ability of a Faraday Cage (that's what we're making, a pouch-shaped Faraday cage lined with fabric) to block electromagnetic waves is directly proportional to the spacing between the wires. Think of it like a sieve for frequencies. The larger the spacing, the less it will block.

If you use chicken wire , any wavelength short enough to fit inside those holes will penetrate. If you use window screening your wavelength goes down, but still exists. Aluminum foil is a preferred material because it's got no holes and thus can (in theory) block everything. The real world adds some technicalities but they're minor cases. A perfect sphere of grounded metal will block damn near everything from getting in or out.

Now the question is, your aluminum fabric may or may not work depending on the way it's made. If the fibers are coated in aluminum it might work very well. If there are just a few aluminum wires woven in there, it might not work well at all.

Unless the fabric is super expensive, I think it's definitely worth a shot. Let us know how it goes! You might be able to get several commissioned pieces for Voaters if you advertise.

Heimdallr

Aluminium foil.

Darthwibble

Could work, I suppose. Not really a long term, daily use sort of thing.

ThisIsntMe123

Maybe a foil wrapped box? Or get a few bucks in pennies, let's say $20. Get an RFID bag, like the ones used to stop a car key fob from working. Phone in bag, pennies around bag in a bigger bag.

Darthwibble

I'll have to try putting my phone in an RFID bag and calling it to see. But the extra layer may do the trick. I may try it with metallic window screen and the RFID bag as well.

theoldguy

If you take the battery out, does it lose data? If it doesn't it'd certainly be easier to do that.

Darthwibble

Battery would be easier, yes. But setting a phone into a box is easier then taking off the back cover and taking out the battery. Or at least I think it would be.

4721691?

Ideally it would be a two stage phone cover, a normal phone cover type with useable access and then an attachable cover to completely seal it off when not in use.

What material would you use?

Darthwibble

My first ideas for a phone cover was about like that. Basically a sleeve sort of thing for your phone, but looking into it that wouldn't really work.
Material, I saw some flexible metal looking material used in construction. It looked like it was weaved, likely used for fire protection or thermal insulation.

4730058?

I would guess that Silver, Copper and aluminium would be less suitable than Platinum, lead or stainless steel.

Home test:

Normal 2/5 Bars

Oven, door closed 1/5 bars

Foil wrapped over antennae 3/5 bars