Slashdot Mirror
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."
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".
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.
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....
Why don't you fax in your Slashdot posts?
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make install -not war
The keyless entry system shouldn't have been using military frequencies. As noted, it IS covered by Part 15, the part you don't want applied because it must accept harmful interference from those that are specifically allowed to use the band.
I'd say GM is at fault for building shitty electronics using frequencies that were allocated for other uses. I'm not surprised, my parents had a couple Oldmobiles and their electronics were the achilles heal of the car. Unless it was on max cool, occasionally the system would shoot heat at you, or if you want heat and it's not on max heat, it would occasionally run the A/C on you.
ummm. radio stations west of the mississippi rivir use K for their callsign. Not w. Nice try.
radio stations west of the mississippi rivir use K for their callsign. Not w. Nice try.
You don't even need Google for this one. Simply typing "WFAA" into your browser is enough to make you look like the world's biggest ass.
(That comment about Photoshop being a Mac game, though? Funny. Keep up the good work.)
I write in my journal