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U.S. Government Sometimes Jams Keyless Car Locks?
PizzaFace writes "The Washington Post reports that in certain towns (generally near military bases), on certain days (such as the day an aircraft carrier returns to port), keyless car entry systems and remote garage door openers mysteriously fail. While some frustrated motorists blame aliens, the FCC says the jammed frequencies belong to the U.S. military. The good ol' Post even tracks down a government contractor who all-but-confirms the source of the interference."
first po#@)(^*ESDHLKS&^$#HLFSDIHF
[JAMMED]
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
There is only a select number of frequencies we can access and use, this was bound to happen.
For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
And I thought it was just my flaky remote. Bah.
I hope this dampening field isn't messing with medical devices like pacemakers, etc. I would like to think that this stuff is tested for all scenarios but, ...
<sig>no sig</sig>
Mine don't work in the parking lot on the military base I work on, but the work fine at home.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."-THG
I hear you get good prices when buying tin foil in large orders. I'd probably need that for the garage door.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
enter your car, and start it with just the key, the government may be to blame, but you need to be slapped.
Horse and buggy remains unaffected by such measures.
Too bad part 15 of the FCC's guidelines can't apply. The whole "may not cause harmful interference" section might have been nice. My dad parked on a Navy base with his keyless entry-equipped Oldsmobile for a few years up in Washington. Whatever they had running was so strong, it completely fried the system.
I had a sucky sig.
This reminds me of that movie Minority Report...
I used to work with an engineer who was a former air force tech on the Looking Glass. The Looking Glass missions were a group of USAF command/control aircraft that was always airborne to provide a redundant facility to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the unlikely event SAC ceased to exist from a USSR strike.
He explained on several occasions that one of their amusements was lowering a long antenna and jamming garage door frequencies and other civilian applications (e.g. keyless door locks). I couldn't imagine why the air force would want to interfere with garage doors and he never had a good explanation other than they were told to do that and the crew always found it amusing.
Urban legend? Looking Glass crew tall tale told to amuse their friends? Who knows, but they certainly had the ability to try and lord knows many friends have had their garage doors open by themselves in the middle of the night.
Jamming is a deliberate "denial of service" attack in the RF relm. Interference is the unintentional degradation or stoppage of service.
When 2 ethernet NIC's transmit at the same time in normal operation we don't call it jamming. I doubt that what the government is doing is intentional.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
"But unlike other more powerful radio signals, keyless entry remotes are not licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. They are allowed to operate on frequencies used by licensed customers as long as their signals are sufficiently weak and don't interfere with others. But because of this outlaw status, their own signals can be jeopardized." Tough. Get licensed, or have a working backup system that doesn't depend on radio. I honestly don't see the issue here. The situation isn't likely to change, so the unlicensed folk will have to work around it. Use spread-spectrum at low power or frequency hopping to get around this. -C
I always thought it was the aliens causing me to become dellusional....I guess its just been the military jamming my garage door and keyless entry systems creating a cross-mojination of signals resulting in strange hallucinations in my brain.
This will be in Michael Moore's next film. </satire>
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
I happen to work at a base where the US Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) is headquartered. I have a keyless entry. So do many of the thousands of other people who work there. Never heard of a keyless entry problem.
Weird.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
At my last base, one day I was riding in a coworker's car on the way to our office. The road there wraps around a runway. His radar detector goes apeshit when going past there. Possibly due to ILS radio waves.
The cops at the gate don't like to see radar detectors anyway, so it was usually best to keep it off the dash after you passed through, as it was useless.
On the other hand, keyless remotes didn't pose too much of a problem.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Same for the ignition, but that is perhaps less vulnerable to interference as the key dongle must be placed inside a slot.
These cars do work in the vicinity of significant ground radar. Otherwise people at the airport would have problems. I really don't know how the lock receivers can be totally swamped. This would normally take a lot of power and proximity to the transmitter.
See my journal, I write things there
A few years ago a US ship visited my hometown Hobart/Ausralia and garage door remotes all over the city stopped working. The US Navy apologised.
Does it go on forever?
Some (factory) alarms go off if you use your key instead of the remote... So, yeah, you can get into your car with they key, but then you either have the alarm going while your driving home, or you can't start your car.
How sad.
If you use remote entry systems, you support terrorism.
Make America grate again!
for that purpose deserves to be bitch-slapped.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I live near Air Force Plant 42 (home of Skunkworks) and Edward AFB in northern LA County and I have ths happen to me all the time!
...people don't interfere with it per se. Thieves armed with a laptop will nab your opener code at a gas station, and then follow you to a hotel or wherever your destination is. They steal the car at night, and are long gone with 3-4 hours head start. They're nice and useful, I'm sure, but not always appropriate.
webpage
My Dad was in the Navy years and years ago and apparently the radar on aircraft carriers is powerful enough to knock birds out of the air at a few hundred feet. One time a bunch of his repair crew buddies were doing work on one of these, so they turned it off and took out the fuses to ensure that it would not get turned on. While they're up working on the dish some guy comes along, sees it's not working and decides to put the fuses back in and turn it on. The guys are up there when it slowly starts to turn -- one of them jumps and slides down off the platform, and the other guy ducks the dish when it swings around and slides down after. I don't know what happened after that, but I bet the guy that put the fuses back in did not have a great time.
While some frustrated motorists blame aliens
Who else in the world would blame aliens because they cant open their garage door.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
this topic has already been covered here.
watching an allnight marathon of X-files, the last thing I need to wake up to are government conspiracy theories. 6 horus ago you could've told me my bunny was in a plot to kill me and was being controlled by aliens, and I would've believed you.
Do they think the average car bomber will be overcome with so much frustration when he's forced to use his keys that he'll be unable to attack the military base?
I don't see any reason for this to exist, unless they're worried about people h4x0ring their way into government cars. It'd probably be cheaper to just rip out the keyless entry in those cars, though.
They're using armed forces reserved RF frequencies for car doors!? I though that you needed a license from the FCC to broadcast at a given frequency.
Aside from the inconvenience to car users who find their cars jammed, isn't it a little dangerous to allow the cars to interfere with military equipment? This could cause havoc with radar, missile guidance systems, and who knows what else. What are they going to say "Oh, sorry we blew up that hospital. We meant to hit a test target, but someone decided to oen their car door".
Why are people so baffled at this? The military/air force radios with more powerful signals broadcast in the same freq range.
One question is: let's say you are at a military base. If you drive to and from the base, you'd probably be using civilian cars. Now the article stated 77 % of vehicles are remote equipped. That means a percentage of vehicles at the bases have remote locking.
Have locksmiths, car dealers had to open cars at such bases, what have they encountered or is using remote locking not allowed at such bases?
Radar Tech: "Sir. The car keys, sir. They appear to be... jammed."
Dark Helmet: "Jammed? Raspberry. There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry. Lone Starr!"
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Top 10 most stolen cars for 2004, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, are:
1. 1989 Toyota Camry
2. 1994 Honda Accord
3. 2000 Honda Civic
4. 1992 Chevy full-size pickup
5. 1997 Ford full-size pickup
6. 1993 Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
7. 1986 Olds Cutlass/Supreme/Cierra
8. 1994 Dodge Caravan
9. 1996 Ford Taurus
10. 2001 Toyota Corolla
None of these cars have the new RFID chips in the keys to prevent theft. So, you can either drive a car likely to be on the "most stolen" list, or put up with some occasional interference that prevents you from using the remote to unlock the car.
Chip H.
This exact same thing happens at a local Eckerd drugstore here in NY. Anywhere in the parking lot you are unable to use your keyless entry to unlock your car. You can be inches away and it just does not work for anyone, ever.
Although once your inside the car it will usually work, since your right on top of the receiver. It probably has something to do with Eckerd transmitting store information to a national databse or something.
Tin-foil key fob covers... patent pending.
> Who else in the world would blame aliens because they cant open their garage door.
If you want to really know, try this guy.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I served 8 years at Camp Pendleton CA and never saw anything like this. Of course the Marine Corps isn't really into high tech :)
Now I did laugh every time there was a ceremony on base with a 21 gun salute and car alarms would go off left and right.
This guy is way out there
I hear the military is why Windows keeps crashing too. At least, that's what my Microsoft Rep just told me.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
Just think what will happen when (if?) they deploy broadband over power lines. The same FCC rules state that BPL will have to accept interferance from ALL liscenced sources. This includes amatuer, police, fire, TV, short wave, broadcast and MILITARY signals. Furthermore BPL won't be allowed to interfere with those services.
Another victim will be RFID tags. I guess buyer beware still holds.
Slashdot reported keyless entries were failing for no apparent reason - maybe this explains it.
The article can be found here.
In Soviet Russia, keyless entry system jams military! err.. no... I for one welcome our keyless entry masters. nope.... FCC 9/11 a new film by M. Moore... ah fudge....
One of those shows that copy MTV's Punk'd concept did a thing like this with retail CB walkie-talkies. They went to one of the big parking lots downtown and when a car's owner approached his vehicle, they just hit the speak button on the CB radio and held it down. Then, when the car wouldn't open, they'd send a fake locksmith in who'd pretend to mess with the lock for a while, eventually give up and then offer to smash in one of the windows.
In most cases, that one walkie-talkie was enough to "jam" the keyless entry system. The only cars it failed to work on were Mercedes, BMW and IIRC Audi models (maybe imports use a different frequeny - I dunno).
Surprisingly, most of the people couldn't seem to figure out how to get in their cars without the remote (well, at least, of those people they showed). I sometimes wonder how those people manage to put their pants on in the morning.
I used to work in a lab where we did some (non-military, non-secret) radio work and it would sometimes cause problems in the car park. The problem seems to be that the receivers in the cars are built "on the cheap" using ceramic resonators rather than quartz crystals, so they are not very selective. That is, rather than being sensitive only to the frequency that the remote is transmitting on, they are also sensitive to adjacent (and not so adjacent) frequencies. They could easily be swamped by a powerful transmitter several MHz away, whereas a better-designed receiver would be imune. So I blame the remote manufacturers.
The particular frequencies used depend on where in the world you are; the U.S. uses one set and the rest of the world uses another. Here in the "rest of the world" most remotes operate at 433 MHz. This is not far from TV frequencies - ever find your car remote doesn't work if you're parked next to a TV transmitter? Newer systems will probably be using 868 MHz (rest of world) or 913 (U.S.); this bit of the spectrum is better regulated and it would be difficult to get away with not using a crystal-based receiver. So hopefully these problems will go away.
Keerap in a bucket. Just where do you think radars are located? You think the aliens are floating them aloft for us? UN black helicopters? Or maybe the AF and navy pilots spend all day aiming their radars at the ground, yeh that's the ticket.
Yah right. Only the military has powerful radars. Airliners are tracked across country by emissions from illegal cell phone usage. The minute they make cell phones legal on airplanes, the thrill will be gone and there will be no way to track airliners because only the military has powerful radars.
And weather radar, gosh, thank hevaens the military shares that powerful technology with us mere civilians.
Flamebait -55.
Infuriate left and right
that went bezerk for almost 48 hours. It worked perfectly until out of the blue, the alarm would sound, doors would lock and unlock every second, and if I shut it off, it would turn itself on again a second later. The car was parked in my parents driveway at the time. I had to disconnect the battery to shut the damned thing off. I tried it again 24 hours later, same problem. The day after that, the problem went away, never reappeared.
Co-incidentally, there was an airshow on in town during this time. When the airshow ended, so did the problems. I wonder what kind of super radar they were using that had this effect.
My rights don't need management.
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This is why you lock out the device when you are working on it.
I find it hard to believe that such a dangerous piece of equipment doesn't have a lockout method.
Every worker should have their own personal lock on a machine when they are working on it. They even make these funny looking multilock adapters that will allow you to have multiple padlocks on at the same time.
The article deals with RF-based keyless entry systems, not the RFID-like chip on keys. Two completely different technologies...
Why don't you fax in your Slashdot posts?
--
make install -not war
Are they doing this jamming on purpose? If so, I'm trying to figure out why they would do this... ...maybe it's so that people can't transmit other types of things on those frequencies, as they are probably the easiest to f#%sk with. Maybe it's to prevent the extreme case of a terrorist remote detonating a bomb or something using a garage door openener (??). Dunno.. just a thought.
The article mentions how the interference seems to arrive during times when a large ship is in port...maybe part of security policy changes resulting from the USS Cole bombing, since I'd assume the same technology for keyless ignition for a car can be used on an explosive if one had the knowledge. Another somewhat related anecdote - at the airport in Goose Bay, Labrador where they do lots of NATO air training, my father had the opporunity to talk to the crew of an AWAC radar plane, and found out that the crew was only able to have female offspring. I like my technology, but once it effects my gonads and their contents, it's a bit frightening.
The cause of the problem is rather clear... keyless systems are Part 15-compliant flea power devices, and their makers have decided to pick radio frequencies used by the military. Since those frequencies are rarely used in most civilian areas, that bandwidth is usually in the clear. However, when a military ship is coming home, that's the frequency band most likely to be used to communicate with the base, and that's where the trouble starts...
Why don't the car people put their systems on 900mHz, 2.4GHz, or 5.8GHz with the rest of the consumer device universe? They might have to deal with occasional interference from other things, but they can be assured that nobody will ever come in with a high-wattage use of that space that'll blow them out of the water.
I thought that was one of the neater twists in the recent Batttlestar Galactica remake - that the only Vipers immune to the Cylon override of their control codes were the ones that had been sitting down in the Galactica museum next to the gift shop.
That, and, of course, the über-hot Cylon chicks...
AFAIK most operate in the same frequency range as wlan.
We've had aircraft carriers visit here in Santa Barbara occasionally... My friend who runs a store loves it, because every time it happens there's a huge spike in his sales of batteries for people's garage door openers.
This is somewhat old news, The Register has reported about this in December 2002....
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
Using a walkie talkie in a car lot allows
you to block many peoples remote central
locking. A few people dont notice their
car doesnt lock. Then when they are in the
markets our theif is their car doing away with
their valuables
easy..
And for those of us who have disable their
locks on thei cars. Spare remote and batteries
hidden deep under the car and battery
terminal extensions hanging out below the car
Have people got so out of touch with reality that they can get so easily frustrated from not being able to unlock the door of their car with a push of a button? I wonder what the little key slot in the door does?!
And for the RF signals from the key to the car... well... have people really gotten so lazy they won't push their cars out of range to start their cars?
That's the real reason why America is +50% obese. LAZINESS!!!
Live forever, or die trying.
Anyone remember seatbelt interlocks? Basically, the car wouldn't start until the seatbelt was fastened. A successful lawsuit by a woman who was raped because she was unable to start her car to flee her attacker put an end to the technology. Just wait for the first person raped, robbed, or otherwise ruined because their car wouldn't permit them entrance, or because their house was afire and the children couldn't exit through the garage. Laws of unintended consequences and practices of the unthinking + wronged party = lawsuit.
It's the American way.
Since some autos have a RFID chip in the key (that's required for starting) could these prepored jamming signals cause an auto not to start? Reading the article it seems that the guy couldn't get into his car. Does any standard car builder have an remote lock without a key lock? On the same vein does a factory alarm/lock system require the use of the remote transmitter with no bypass method like placing the key in the ignition within a preset time?
It seems a little shortsighted to solely depend on a remote transmitter to access an auto. Something I have yet to personally hear of, but suspect someone here has.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
My cars have those keyless entry things.
None of you will believe me, anyways.
One day, I parked near a friends house, around Southport/Addison (chicago). I was (at the time) driving a 1998 Black Sebring.
When I came back to pickup my car, there was a white saturn in front of it.
Push unlock. The headlights, and the horn on both cars flash/beep.
Weird.
Push lock. The headlights, and the horn on both flash/beep twice.
Weird.
Repeat.
Wow... It kept working.....
What are the chances against that? 80 billion to 1?
Craziness..
Why can't I win the lotto, instead?
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
Here's a scary story:
I worked at a branch of the military for a while. During one of the status reports, I heard this story:
Two repair techs lock out the machine they're working on with padlocks and put the keys in their respective pockets. Once they're done the repair, they go to turn the lockout off, and...
"What the [pretty flowers]? The [fluffy bunnies] padlocks are [cute kitten] missing!"
They searched the ship, and they found a drawer full of bent, broken, and damaged padlocks. It didn't belong to anyone, but it was a real WTF moment. Not only did someone ignore the lockout routine, but the guy pried open the padlocks to turn the locked out machine on.
They never found out who did it.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Not long my assistant and I were faced with a mystery. Our wireless doorbell was going haywire and our keyless entry remotes had ceased to function.
We unplugged the doorbell's receiver and pondered the problem. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the doorbell's transmitter was causing the jamming. I opened it up, blew out the water from the recent rain, and restored all functionality to the doorbell and to our keyless entry remotes.
Coding Blog
The reason that these huge ships jam remotes is simple... look at the range they're radios and other communication devices have to go when they're at sea. I'd sure hope they'd be big and powerful.
I'll Find You Peer, If It's The Last Thing I Do!!!!
I've sometimes had problems with my keyless entry system (no idea what frequency it uses) in the parking lot at San Diego International Airport. I had assumed it was interference from the airport's radar, but there are several military bases in the immediate vicinity.
You know, it sure is funny that when the higher ups at a military base dont trust what their told, it's
called "Safe and Secure"
When I don't trust what I'm told, it's called paranoia.
Wonder what those military types would think if Coke put an RFID chip in the fucking cans.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Unless they arranged to get protected frequencies from the appropriate government agency (FCC in the USA), then it is up to the manufacturers of the cars and/or the products being incorporated into the cars, to see to it that the signals operate on frequencies where they won't be subject to the kind of interference that causes them to fail to operate. Of course they are also subject to the power limitations for unlicensed transmitters which ensures that they are very weak. It would be easy for someone to set up a radio transmitter that did jam those frequencies, and it wouldn't take much power at all to overcome the few milliwatts used for car door locks. A watt or two would wipe out an entire mall. So even if the car manufacturers got their own frequency, it would be hard to prevent jamming (not impossible, but very expensive).
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Was the parent too lazy, I wonder, to read the first to paragraphs of the article? This sentence leads the second paragraph (highlighted for emphasis):
His keyless entry remote control, the device that unlocks the doors and also is required to start the engine of his car, had gone haywire again.
and here from further down the first page. Just in case readers require repetition:
In most cases, remote control failure is little more than a curiosity, as drivers can simply use their keys to unlock the doors. Some cars, however, require the device to deactivate an alarm or start the engine.
No wonder 75% of Americans have a fifth grade reading level and the attention span nature granted a gnat? They cannot even finish the fine article before posting their misplaced ire on Slashdot!
I've seen many of the towers they are talking about in the article. Many are being sold off as business bunkers or dismantled due to fiber optics being the medium of choice these days. The towers belong to what was called the 'long lines' division of AT&T.
The primary purpose of these towers was to relay AT&T's transcontinental long distance communications but they also seemed to be a source of backup communications for govt. sites around the US, including the Congressional Relocation Facility, hidden under the Greenbriar Hotel in SE West Virginia. Another use was to serve as a network feed for many local TV stations, a need that requires high bandwidth. This is of course before satellite took over for that purpose.
I have noticed that many sites have 4 identical antennas at the very top in a square shape. This is a configuration I recently observed on the rooftop of what I can assume was a secret service Chevy Suburban that was leading the motorcade for VP Dick Cheney. I saw the motorcade in Pittsburgh on Saturday as I exited the Fort Pitt tunnels on to the Parkway West, they were coming down the hill about to enter the tubes and go in to the city. I also saw another suburban behind the first that appeared to have a large dome on the roof, possibly a radar of some kind.
Some really good links with in-depth descriptions including interior photos of the bunkers:
http://www.drgibson.com/towers/
http://long-lines.net
what exactly does must accept any interference they experience entail? does this mean installing shielding (eg strapping on large slabs of lead) is illegal?
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
I absolutely beleive they can and do block such things. Recall when some extreemists in Pakistan tried to blow up Musharraf's car as it drove over a bridge but because they were jamming the signal it didn't go off until shortly after it passed by?
We already have a band used for misc wireless technology. This is the 2.4Ghz band. Cordless phones, Wifi, and why not keyless entry systems?
These signals barely interfere because of the difference in channel modulation they use. Just make another channel for keyless entry, and problem solved.
A know-it-all ahole officer (probably a lieutenant) came along, said "why is this off" took off the tag-out and turned it on. Apparently the guy lost most use of his one arm.
Also heard the story of the US Navy (a real Navy)that sailors used to stand in front of the dish for a few seconds before going on shore leave, to avoid the possibility of child support payments. Apparently the had found that it left them sterile for several days.
Unfortunately, it was later found that repeated exposure resulted in permanent sterility, not just a few days of "no swimmers".
Those antennas served as a Ground Entry Point (GEP) for the UHF air-ground radio system code-named "Combat Ciders", which provided communications to the Post-Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) aircraft. Those planes, such as "Looking Glass", were flying command posts on continuous airborne alert, capable of delivering orders to launch nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. In addition, the UHF network was used by Air Force One when the plane was within the system's range.
http://www.freebsd.org
Apparently you don't need your tinfoil hat any more, as the government will jam the thought-control rays for you (at least when important officials are in town).
Have you read my blog lately?
The Navy requires certain (very powerful) radars to be put into stow mode when approaching port so that the effective radiated EM energy does not propagate horizontally.
Of course you have a 19 year old high school dropout operating the equipment, so every now and then, you can expect him or her to fail to follow proceedures.
The military has no hidden motive to interfere with such simple systems.
If you want a key-less entry system that always works, then design one that can compensate for a rogue interfering signal with a long pulse delay.
BTW, you may not want to use a key-less entry system in the first place because the transmit code is not encrypted. I recon it would be easy enough to design a system that listens and records your code when you get out of your car. The thieves could then play back that code when you're out of sight. Bye bye car.
Seems to me that putting a key in the lock isnt all that hard - the fact that this is becoming such a big deal doesn't speak very highly for us.
Besides, how hard would it be for someone to intercept your signal and gain the ability to unlock your door? they couldnt start the car, because you still need a key for that (i beleive), but they can walk off with your stereo or anything else you had inside... All they need is an antenna and a recording device, and a little time and patience.
Now, it would be different if you made your OWN remote locking mechanism and your own keyfob - but using a mass-production version and then complaining when it doesnt work seems a little immature in thought.
Similarly, the Al Queda wannabe's in Iraq are reduced to using real doorbells, with wires. Apparently many convoys have local jammers to foil the wireless technique.
And, ... where was I reading that whenever Air FOrce One comes to town, the garage doors and other remotes just go nuts... Ditto, AF1 have a very good collection of remote jammers for protecting POTUS-W.
Also, rolling codes are now common on garage door openers to foil the old trick - hook a 555 timer to a digital counter, and hook that to a transmitter, and drive around looking for garage doors to open. Originally, their code was only 3 digits long and it was easy to hit the right one within range while driving by and continually repeating the count.
When some ships rolled into Portland during the Rose Festival, I saw this guided missile cruiser and it had 3 antennas on the back of it in a triangle about 25 ft. apart from each other. If you looked into the center of the antenna array everything was hazy. It was like looking through a giant version of heat waves on the street. That much juice running through the air and interfering with other things doesn't surprise me.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
I was assuming it was more narrow band interference. But given that several classes of devices are affected, it must be wider. The other thing this article seems to be is heavy into blaming the military. How about blaming the car manufacturers for producing an unreliable technology with no backups and depending on the military to only occasionally encroach on these frequencies? -C
It could have been raspberry jam.
paintball
One time I got in and started the motor before realizing I was in someone else's car. It was a 1972 240Z. Those were common as hell once. Of course, there are probably fewer key combinations with physical locks.
wrap it in a big ball around your hand, the transmitter and the reciever on the car.
Press the button.
For additional effect, get the transmitter touching the reciever.
Our car has an RF door-unlock. It also has a key incase your battery runs out... that in itself should be a reason to have a proper key, let alone the frequency getting blocked by someone else using it.
FGD 135
Actually, 433 MHz is in a band allocated to amateur radio (HAM radio) and radiolocation (radar and positioning equipment).
Unlicensed lowpower devices are allowed to use a small part of this band, but they have to accept interference from the other services.
Many radio amateurs are allowed to output about 100 Watts at this frequency, which of course completely swamps the milliwatt signal of the car keys.
The radio location service can output megawatts of pulse power.
The frequency is also used by many other lowpower wireless devices. Interferences is very often a problem. Don't buy products using this technology.
If you're getting interference with a keyless entry device at very short range, the interference source is probably nearby. Very nearby, like tens of meters. There's an inverse square law, remember. Somebody in that parking lot has something that's emitting.
Sure, an Aegis battlecruser could point its phased array radar in your direction, hold the beam stationary. and send a few megawatts down a narrow beam out to the horizon, but that's unlikely. Few smaller radars have that kind of power, directionality, and steerability. You still have to have near line of sight, anyway.
Get a directional antenna and a signal strength meter, and you'll find the source.
Apparently the moderators didn't think so ;o).
Oct 2003, when NATO was in town: Airwave glitch hits Springs area, Garage-door openers jammed, hundreds say
Phillip
Yeah well, we also used to fly our ECM sorties while people our were driving into work on base.
What did our ECM ops practice their jamming skills on? Yep, you guessed it, the cop's RADAR guns...
A little trick I learned a few years ago is that you can point teh remote at your chin and it functions as a reflector to focus the signal. Simmilar in concept to the diy cookware wifi antenna. I realize that given the nature if the interference caused by military use this might not help in this kind of scenario but it is still a useful trick
To find my comments, just click on my name. The comments will have links to the articles.
I don't know why I'm responding to an AC, but what the hell...
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
This has been moderated down, but I've heard a rumour now that in addition to US Citizenship and good character, prospective recruits to the airforce must now be posessed of "good" Karma or higher.
We complain - audi says it's not their fault, City says it's not their problem.
When I grow an extra head from the radiation I will go to the office of the Sutro Tower people and eat one of their faces.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Professor Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University spoke about the whole fiasco of eVoting at the USENIX '04 conference in Boston last week. He spoke of his experiences working on this issue in a panel session "The Politicization of Security," along with Gary McGraw of Cigital, Professor Ed Felton of Princeton, and Jeff Grove of the ACM. From what Professor Rubin said, the electronic voting is a very politically charred issue. Companies like Diabold developing technologies have strong political ties, and yes, the system is targeted for abuse. Professor Rubin spoke of how difficult it was to work with the government. He received tons of phone calls from both sides, Democrats and Republicans questioning him left and right. Professor Rubin's goal is to be partisan, and it's incredibly hard to do because the Democrats and Republicans can't sit on the same table together at all. There's so much fighting and bickering over the issue from both parties because the notion is "we don't want the other guy to win." Professor Rubin was called to testify in front of Congress about the technology and limitations of eVoting and the meeting time has been changed or cancelled so many times. The punchline from Professor Rubin was "Partisanship has never been worse."
those fuckers are doing it with the two laptops they stole from me.
Also, its not just aircraft carriers that cause it. In San Diego the A/C carriers are berthed at Green Island, *not* at the main naval station. So they aren't responsible for it. But there are still dozens of frigates, destroyers, cruisers and amphibious ships that could be causing it.
So if the government can interfere with the proper function of your keyless entry device, then with proper amplification, you could really have some fun! (p.s. don't try this at home, or don't tell them i told you to.)
Years ago (mid 70's) I spent one year living and working in key west. Whenever I drove by the boca chica naval air station, the horn on the van would honk at approximately 5 second intervals. First time it happened it was hilarious! I had NO idea what the heck was going on! Considering this was a real old van at the time (a 65 econoline) with nothing computerised in it, it always made me wonder how powerful that signal was, and what the heck it was for.
it is advisable to use the key to unlock the door like it was intended to... not sit and wait 20 minutes like Vernon Garrison did in the above linked story..
It's quite possibly a WARLOCK anti-IED system.
Didn't we see this basic topic covered a few months ago? Yup, thought so.
For those who don't want to read the link:
Hoompini-Ting writes "Some accuse area 51, but in any case many folks were stranded when keyless locks failed or their car computers malfunctioned. No technical explanation but I'm sure slashdotters have theories. Similar to the failure in Seattle 3 years ago. See the Las Vegas Review-Journal for more details."
And just to compare, the link in this thread is the same.
Usually, double-posts on Slashdot are a few days apart ... things must be improving if it takes a few months to re-post the same article.
Give the user the ability to change frequencies. Have a little switch on the key and another in the car. Flip both to red, and the system uses one frequency. Flop both to blue, and the system uses another frequency.
I've had the same problem with my car over on 34th Street by the Copacabana on the west side by the Javits Center. Does that mean there is some military base nearby?
I can see it now, enemy soliders wondering why their tank doesn't go 'bowip!' one morning...
In my next incarnation, I hope to come back as a code monkey.
Maybe the issue with aircraft carriers is that they have better radar coverage.
See my journal, I write things there
Hmmm... looks like I need to take a closer look at the transmitter. There's something on it, I gotta get closer... What the hell is this?? Damm there is little space in here. Geez I hate working on these things. I wonder what would happen if one of those stupid temp dicks turned on the juice now...
:-)
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!! What the FUCK!!!! TURN IT OFF!! BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!! OH FUCK!! TURN IT OFF!!!!! TURN IT OFF!!! FUCK THIS HURTS!! BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!! ARGGGGHHHH!! BUZZZZZZZZZZ! ARRRGGGHH TURN IT OFF!!.
"Hey sorry dude, we thought you were already down. Hey! Nasty sunburn you got there, next time bring some sun lotion to work!". Damm! I feel dizzy and nauseaus! Uh oh... I'm gonna throw up. UAAAAAAHHHRGH!! Got it all over my pants. Fuck. Uh oh.. I'm gonna pass out, oh shit...
Where am I?? Why is it dark in here? "Hey! Someone help! Where the hell am I???". "Calm down you're in a hospital" "I can't see! I can't see". "That's because of all the microwave radiation you got. The good news is that there's a 2% chance that you will regain some sort of limited viewing capability but since your eyeballs were literally cooked with microwaves.. tell you the truth, we just don't know right now."
A couple of months later: "Sorry Frank, I know this is really hard to take but you're not alone with this and we caught this one early. Male breast cancer happens to thousands of men each year and the survival rate is just as good as with female breast cancer. If you're lucky we can maybe get around a mastectomy but its still to early to say. What I'm a little more worried about is that lump on your liver I noticed on the other X-ray..." "Geez doc, I already have lung cancer and intestinal cancer, you removed my testicles, you took off both of my legs dammit what's next??". "Frank.. you are one of few TV-dinners that was heated in a microwave and lived to talk about it. What do you expect?"
Gory details enough for you??
If I park at my nearest petrol station, I have to make sure I'm far enough away from the automatic door, otherwise my key fob fails and I can't start the car or disable the alarm. Pushing the car about 10 feet away fixes the problem.
Noisy and embarrassing - but at least that one is simple. I have heard stories of a more general issue near some coastguard stations - where a tow truck was needed to move the car far enough away:-)
You have a garage door open that you know will be interfered with by military frequencies, and so you attach explosives to it. It's almost the perfect trap.
Clever people, those Iraqis.
This is my sig.
The last seven cars I've owned (since 1988) have had a manual override to clear the alarm / immobiliser (either the ignition key, another key or some sort of pin code). Mind you - this is in Europe. Maybe some people are just too lazy to read how to clear the alarm without the remote?
It might be a right wing extremist brainwashing streak. ;)
Why did GEAR crush RDP?
Available on keyless entries from Jeep and Mercedes in the nineties. Plus you can hack it with a PDA or universal TV remote!