Because reporters are constantly moving about and in regular contact with a variety of people, I can imagine having their phone nearby is a big boon to the trade.
Does anyone know if portable, packable, and sufficiently effective, Faraday cages exist. Effective enough to block all incoming/outgoing signal?
In that case they could deposit their phone in the pack at a random location heading to the meet-up, then remove it at another random location later [without having to leave it behind].
Portable faraday bags are effective enough. They are not much larger than the phone and I can't call one when it's inside the bag. I haven't done any kind of tests to see what signals might be leaking from it.
>Does anyone know if portable, packable, and sufficiently effective, Faraday cages exist
Wrapping the phone in aluminum foil will do the trick. But really simply turning off the phone (which you would want to do anyway to kill the mic) should be enough except perhaps if you're up against a state-level adversary.
I wanted to add that in principle turning it off is enough -- in practice, with human foibles, you should leave it at home.
It's easy to stray into leaving your phone on too long or forgetting one of the times. Leaving it at home is much harder of a boundary to cross without knowing.
Does anyone know if portable, packable, and sufficiently effective, Faraday cages exist. Effective enough to block all incoming/outgoing signal?
In that case they could deposit their phone in the pack at a random location heading to the meet-up, then remove it at another random location later [without having to leave it behind].