Project
Imagine this scenario: It is a quiet evening and you have ample time to kill. You sit with your favorite drink and crank up the music to your favorite band and your body starts swaying and moving to the beats. And then it happens! Out of nowhere, there is blood curdling static noise emanating from your speaker system. The noise screeches like a banshee dimming out the music in a din, announcing that you are getting a call on your cellphone. Even the sanest of individuals feel like smashing his speakers or their cellphones during such moments. Cellphone interference can really be a pain in the neck. But, we all are aware of this particular woe, now the question is: Is there way to get rid of cellphones or mobiles interfering with speakers? Sure, you can get one of those set of speakers that are shielded from any interference, but there are inexpensive ways as well. Today, we will tell you how you can stop mobiles from interfering with speakers and spoiling your mood. Now you can enjoy your music without having to worry about that pesky device creating a din.
Difficulty Level: Easy, anybody can do it!
Things that you are going to need
· Two cell phones. One will be used to test the setup and the other one that will be causing interference.
· A 19 inch piece of Aluminum foil. Tear off 9 inches of the foil.
· Any flat surface that is not slippery. It will act as a place for folding purposes.
Time Required 15-20 minutes
Instructions
Step 1: Folding the Aluminum foil
Remember the 9 inches of foil that you tore off? Now place that piece of foil flat on the surface. Place one of the cellphones on the foil near one of the top edges. Now carefully fold the foil in the middle so as to bring the bottom half of the foil over the mobile. Bring the two edges of the foil together thus making a new bottom edge. Crease this bottom edge.
Step 2: Folding the Sides
After you are done making the fold as said in Step 1, you will now need to make the side folds so as to ensure that the phone does not fall out. You should make sure that the phone remains sandwiched in the middle while folding the sides. Fold on the first outside the red line and then fold again. Repeat the process on the other end as well.
Step 3: Finishing Up
While testing with the other phone, i.e., calling the mobile wrapped up in the foil, we found that the setup was more than enough to block signals to the phone and was thereby able to isolate any interference to normal stereo or desktop speakers. In fact, the foil was so successful in blocking any incoming signals that the phone wrapped up in the foil was unavailable to either incoming calls or messages. The phone loses signal reception for some reason. It is like the phone isn’t even ON!
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Does turning of the phone help?
Answer: Switching off the device might actually help but it is successful for only a few phones and in rare cases. The foil setup gives a greater rate of success.
Question: Does it harm the phone in any way?
Answer: Not that we know of. You are simply wrapping the phone in a piece of foil. Think of it as using a signal jammer. No parts are tinkered with in the process.
Quick Tips
· A small wallet sized piece of foil is successful in blocking RFID chips placed in Driver’s Licenses or Credit/Debit cards. So they cannot be ‘skimmed’. It can also be used to block scanners from detecting RFID tags in library books in case you want to take one of them home for reference.
· You are not damaging the phone’s internal circuitry in any way whilst using the foil setup. When you are done with it, simply unwrap the phone, discard the foil and you can use your phone normally again.
Things to watch out for
Remember that when wrapped in the foil, the phone will not receive any calls or texts, so you can miss important notifications from friends or family. All incoming calls will be redirected to your voicemail.