Is There Cell Phone Interference from Car Components While Driving?

[bosen18]

I'm not an engineer and so I appreciate everyone who contributes.

1)Is there any measurable cell phone interference from a car battery, alternator, or starter while the car engine is running if the cell phone is in the driver's seat?
2)What would this interference look like?

Thank you.

 

[berkeman]

I'm not an engineer and so I appreciate everyone who contributes.

1)Is there any measurable cell phone interference from a car battery, alternator, or starter while the car engine is running if the cell phone is in the driver's seat?
2)What would this interference look like?

Thank you.

Welcome to the PF.

Are you asking because you have reception problems while driving? Cell phone frequencies are pretty high, compared to the noise spectrum from a car. Does it happen in all vehicles that you drive, or is there a particular car that gives you issues?

(Are you driving hands-free?)

 

[madmike159]

"Cell phones originally used FM, but now most use various digital modulation schemes."

Taken from Wikipedia. Using FM interference should not really have any effect, but I'm not exactly sure what these digital modulation schemes are so I don't know how noise effects them.

Noise will be superimposed onto the waveform. If you imagin a sine wave and take one part of it and increase the value, this is roughly what noise would do.