Faraday Pouches – a solution for electronic shielding whilst Off Piste Skiing

If you are up to speed on avalanche safety, then you’ll know that you should always switch your phone off […]

The post Faraday Pouches – a solution for electronic shielding whilst Off Piste Skiing appeared first on Alpine Guides.

If you are up to speed on avalanche safety, then you’ll know that you should always switch your phone off whilst off piste skiing, to prevent it from interfering with your avalanche transceiver.

However, if you also use your phone for photography, then this presents a problem – as you have to power the phone on and off between each shot, which takes much longer than powering up a regular camera. There is a solution however, which allows you to keep your phone on for photography, whilst avoiding transceiver interference issues – so we’ve been testing this and have produced some recommendations.

Faraday Pouch

In simple terms, a Faraday Pouch (or Faraday Bag – same thing) is a bag that’s made of a fabric containing lots of very thin metal wires. When you place your phone (or any other electronic device) into the pouch, the ‘metal cage’ that now surrounds the phone, effectively isolates it from the outside world. This means that the phone has no reception and cannot pick up any wifi signals, gps or bluetooth – but importantly, it also blocks any electrical interference created by the phone from reaching the outside world. The phone can also no longer be hacked or tracked, which is why Faraday Pouches are often used by the police, military and security services as well as in corporate settings, to protect sensitive information. You may already have come across Faraday pouches as a solution to prevent modern car keys being hacked as well.

Placing your phone inside a Faraday Pouch is therefore an effective way of electronically shielding it from the outside world and preventing it from causing interference with your avalanche transceiver. Using one allows you to keep your phone switched on and readily accessible for photography whilst skiing – you just need to carry it >20cm away from your transceiver the same as a metal object.

For Guides and others using electronics for navigation, a Faraday pouch also provides a safe ‘garage’ for such devices when they are not in use – ie so you can keep it warm in a pocket and ready for use etc.

Limitations

Please note that whilst your phone is in the Faraday Pouch, it is totally isolated from the outside world and non of it’s communication or location functions will work until you take it out again (ie no phone signal, gps, bluetooth or wifi). Beware however – you will find numerous ‘radiation RFID shielding’ phone cases and similar products available online (see warnings below), which claim to provide electronic shielding whilst allowing your phone to function normally – these are not the same as a Faraday Pouch and should not be used for transceiver interference protection, as they do not provide full electronic interference shielding.

What to buy

We’ve bought and tested a number of different Faraday Phone Pouches – cheap and cheerful ones made in the far east (~£5) and a more expensive Uk made model (~£30) that’s recommended by the police and security services. We found the cheap ones were better than carrying an unshielded phone, but still left a significant reduction in transceiver range, whereas the expensive one provided full shielding and caused no reduction in transceiver range and function during our testing, so we recommend the following model:

Disklabs Phone Shield (PS1) Faraday Bag

These are Uk made, thoroughly tested and recommended by the police and security services – so if you want to take photos on your phone whilst off piste skiing, then buy one of these, switch your phone to airplane mode which will maximise the battery life and carry it >20cm from your transceiver whilst skiing. You can buy them on Amazon and elsewhere for ~£30.

If you live outside the Uk and cannot get hold of this particular model, then look for a similar high quality branded Faraday Phone Bag/Pouch that is tested and recommended by police/security services etc – ie we do not recommend any of the very cheap Faraday bags you can buy online, as these don’t come with independent quality or testing guarantees and may not provide full electronic shielding protection.

Warning – don’t buy RFID blocking phone cases…

As mentioned above, if you search online for ‘radiation blocking phone case’ or similar search terms, you will find hundreds of phone cases for sale that promise to shield you from harmful electromagnetic radiation whilst making calls and prevent your phone from being hacked, but at the same time allow your phone to function normally. If this all sounds too good to be true, then unfortunately it is – as numerous of these phone cases have been tested and found not to live up to the claims made by their manufacturers. For our purposes, they do not provide complete electronic interference shielding between your phone and an avalanche transceiver, so shouldn’t be used for this purpose – buy a good quality Faraday Pouch/Bag instead.

If you want a cheap but effective alternative, then wrap your phone up in tin foil – this might sound a bit Heath Robinson, but it forms an effective Faraday Cage which will shield your phone.

Finally, if you want to find out more about how to manage consumer electronics in avalanche terrain, then we strongly recommend that you read our avalanche transceiver interference advice page, which offers comprehensive up to date advice on the subject.

The post Faraday Pouches – a solution for electronic shielding whilst Off Piste Skiing appeared first on Alpine Guides.