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Cell Phones
cell tower
"Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit."
Psalms 34:14
  • A telecommunications company is developing a cell phone that will alert users if they have bad breath.
  • The first cell phone call was made in April 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper, who called a rival scientist to brag that he had invented the cell phone first.
  • Birds in Australia have started mimicking ring tones.
IT'S NOT A PHONE
From almost anywhere in the world, including underground caves in China and overgrown jung les in the Amazon, cell phones keep people connected. In fact, more than 3 billion people worldwide depend on these miniature marvels. Ironically, cell phones are really not telephones. On the contrary, they're more like radios because they use radio waves to connect users. To understand how cell phones work, therefore, you must learn about radio waves and frequencies, cell towers and control stations, and cell phone codes.
 
RADIO WAVES & FREQUENCIES
Cell phone conversations are transmitted through the air as radio waves, which, like ocean waves, rise and fall as they travel. Scientists identify radio waves by measuring their wavelength and their frequency. For our purposes, though, only their frequency is important. A radio wave's frequency is calculated by counting how many waves pass a given spot in one second-a hertz (Hz). For example, 10 waves/second = 10 Hz; 1,000/ second = 1 Khz; and 1,000,000/second = 1Mhz. The government assigns different frequencies to radio, television, and cell phone networks. In most cities, cell phone carriers receive approximately 800 unique frequencies.
 
CELL TOWERS & CONTROL STATIONS
Phone companies divide their networks into small areas called cells (usually 10 square miles) and assign a portion of their frequencies to each cell. A giant tower with a radio receiver and a low-power transmitter serves callers in each cell, receiving and transmitting only those frequencies designated for that cell. The demand for new frequencies is never exhausted because frequencies can be reused in non-adjacent cells. The entire network is coordinated by a Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO).
CELL CODES
When you turn on your cell phone, it transmits your mobile identification number to the MTSO, which identifies the cell you're in. If a call for you arrives at the control station, the MTSO locates the cell you're in and forwards the call to that cell phone tower, which, in turn, sends it to you. As you travel from cell to cell, the MTSO tells your phone to change frequencies, so it can communicate inside the next cell.
 
SHEMA YISRAEL—CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Like individual cells that receive and transmit only specific frequencies, we should train ourselves to hear and speak only those words that cultivate intimacy (close connections) between individuals and communities. To accomplish this feat, we must subscribe to a vibrant Torah network. When we do, Jewish values, such as speaking emet, truth, avoiding lashon hara, bad speech, and even providing tokhaha, offering criticism based in love, will coordinate our behavior as we move from strength to strength in life. 
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