On Sun, 26 Mar 2017 04:20:13 -0500, Foxs Mercantile
wrote:

Back in the early to mid '90s, the standard albeit incorrect
answer for "no cell phone use on airplanes" was that they would
interfere with the operation of the airplane.

My question was, if that was true, why wasn't Mount Wilson a
smoking crater for the amount of RF it poured out under the
flight path.

First of all, they didn't say cell phones *would* interfere. They
said they *Could* interfere. The transmitters on Mt Wilson are
maintained by professionals. If one of those transmitters would
suddenly start transmitting on an ATC or navaid frequency, they would
figure it out and fix it quickly. Compare that to a few hundred
people on an airliner each with their own little transmitter. If one
of those devices malfunctions and is spewing harmonics, there is no
quick way to find and resolve it. So, asking everyone to turn off
their transmitters reduces the chances of an interference problem. Of
course, some will forget and others refuse, but having 2 or 3 small
transmitters on a plane rather than hundreds reduces the chances of an
issue. You said "if that was true". Not only *was* it true back in
the mid 90's. It *is* still true today. And, why do you want your
phone wasting battery searching for usable cell sites during a long
flight, anyway?