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Remote Garage Door Openers Stop Working in Neighborhood - RF Cafe
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Kirt Blattenberger
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Post subject: Remote Garage Door Openers Stop Working in Neighborhood
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:36 pm
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003
2:02 pm Posts: 676 Location: Erie, PA
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Greetings: I just posted an interesting
video
on the RF Cafe homepage about a community in Virginia
where most of the garage door opener remotes stopped
working at the same time - around Christmas Eve.
Unless there is a Y2008XMAS bug in the systems,
then it is doubtful that there is a systemic problem
involved. Besides, not all of the openers are made
by the same manufacturer nor were they all installed
by the same company. The locals tried to
blame the nearby military base, but the spokesman
denied any responsibility, and I believe it. Any
interferer powerful enough to caused widespread
failure of the garage door openers would almost
certainly manifest itself in other very noticeable
ways. My guess is that someone attempt a
mass hijacking of the garage door opener codes.
I have read of drive-by schemes where a person is
successful at running through codes fast enough
to lock in. The only thing that might disqualify
that possibility is some of the remote controllers
supposedly will work while within the confines of
the garage. There really was not a lot to
go on in the TV report, and I have not seen a follow-up
report on what, if anything , was discovered to
be the cause. Have you got any theories,
or ever heard of a similar occurrence?
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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EMC Guy |
Post subject: RE garage door openers
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:23 pm
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Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009
5:01 pm Posts: 1 Location: Toronto ON Canada
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Yes, I've heard of this before. A few years ago
the US military was developing a new radio system
that works at about 390 MHz, around the same freq
as the door openers. They were doing some testing
in I believe Florida when locals started complaining
that their doors stopped working. After a while,
the problem disappeared. The military said "no,
not us causing it". A few months later it started
happening somewhere out west. Again after numerous
complaints the problem disappeared and the military
said no not us. A few months after that, is started
happening up in Ottawa, Canada. Before anyone got
out to investigate, some reporter who remembered
hearing what happened down in Florida, called up
the US embassy to ask if they were testing a new
radio system. They said no but then the problem
went away. I'm sure if you do a google, you'll find
something like
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/12 ... r-openers/
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Kirt Blattenberger
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Post subject: More evidence
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:07 pm
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2003
2:02 pm Posts: 676 Location: Erie, PA
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Thanks to Dave Rickmers
for e-mailing this information:
PUBLIC
NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12
th St., S. W. Washington, D. C. 20554 News Media
Information 202 / 418- 0500 Internet: http:// www.
fcc. gov TTY: 1- 888- 835- 5322 PRESS CONTACT:
DA 05- 424 Bruce Romano: 202- 418- 2124 February
15, 2005
Consumers May Experience Interference
To Their Garage Door Opener Controls Near Military
Bases
Consumers near certain military installations
have recently experienced interference to their
garage door opener controls that may reduce the
operating distance or cause the device to stop operating.
This public notice is issued to explain the cause
of the interference and the steps being taken to
alleviate this problem. The vast majority of consumers
will not experience any interference to their garage
door opener controls.
Garage door openers
operate, legally under Part 15 of the Commissions
rules, at very low power on an “unlicensed basis,”
and have been permitted to operate on frequencies
that have been reserved for the federal government
since WWII for air/ ground communications systems,
but received limited use by the government for many
years. As unlicensed devices, there is no right
to protection from interference. However, because
of this limited use, the risk of interference was
similarly limited, so manufacturers of garage door
openers chose these frequencies for their transmit
and receive devices. In response to the increased
needs of homeland security, the Department of Defense
now must make more use of these frequencies to deploy
new mobile radio systems on and around certain military
bases.
Some consumers near these bases may
experience interference to their garage door openers
that can reduce operating range or cause the remote
control to cease functioning. This interference
will not cause the garage doors to open or close
on their own. Inside the garage, wall- mounted push
buttons will not be affected by any interference
that might occur, and will continue to operate normally.
It is not possible to predict in advance
which specific users or locations near military
bases may experience interference, because of the
variety of technical characteristics of garage door
controls and configuration of the mobile radio systems.
The Department of Defense is working with the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration
to make reasonable effort consistent with their
mission requirements, and the Federal Communications
Commission is working with the garage door opener
industry to make every effort on their part, to
minimize the impact to consumers.
For security
reasons, the Department of Defense cannot make information
broadly available in advance as to the deployment
of the new mobile radio systems. Individual base
commanders may make some information available to
their local communities when appropriate.
Garage door opener manufacturers stand ready
to help consumers resolve any interference to their
systems, including, in some cases, making available
for purchase, a replacement transmitter and receiver
that operate on a different frequency that is not
used by the new mobile radio systems.
Consumers
experiencing interference should contact the manufacturer
of the door opener control or their local installer
for information on available immediate solutions.
For further information on this Public Notice,
please contact the FCC Call Center at 1- 888- CALL-
FCC (1- 888- 225- 5322).
Dave Rickmers
KD6IL RF Technician +1 661 705 3700
_________________ - Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster
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buck_amps |
Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:40 pm
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Lieutenant |
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008
2:28 pm Posts: 2 |
I was only aware of the interference occurring in
the 390mHz range when the military made a switch
to the 390mHz range for a new trunked radio system,
the Land Mobile Radio System (LMRS). To solve the
problem, newly made garage door systems now operate
at 315mHz. 1st, i would make sure this guy
doesn't live in the area... (biff44)
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=178028&page=1
But seriously, Next, I would consider
possible interference from a nearby UHF SATCOM system.
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Posted 11/12/2012
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