Air Force Jams Garage Doors

SonicSpike points us to a Chicago Tribune article reporting that in Colorado the Air Force is jamming garage doors. In a joint U.S.-Canadian operation, they were testing communications on a frequency that would be used by first responders in the event of a threat to homeland security. From the article: "But the frequency also controls an estimated 50 million garage door openers, and hundreds of residents in the area found that theirs had suddenly stopped working... Technically, the Air Force has the right to the frequency, which it began using nearly three years ago at some bases. Signals have previously interfered with garage doors near bases in Florida, Maryland, and Pennsylvania."

Comments

Re:Technically???

[jonnyelectronic]

What that sentence could be trying to say is that the Air Force has the rights to the frequency, but only started using it three years ago.

Fault lies with door manufacturers

[yourpusher]

They shouldn't have made their openers to operate on this frequency, in the first place. It's no secret which frequencies are allocated to the US gov't. It's laziness on the part of the company.

Re:Technically???

[TubeSteak]

the problem here is that those garage doors openers are unlicensed transmitters using a band they wouldn't be allowed to use if it wasn't for the "low power" exceptions.

A similar example would be the iPod to FM Radio adapters & similar products.

The FCC will give you a free pass if you're below some maximum power, which brings us to this tidbit from TFA: Holly Strack, who lives near the entrance to the facility, said friends in the neighborhood all had the same problem. "I never thought my garage door was a threat to national security," she said.

Don't worry hon, your garage door opener isn't a threat, unless you're somehow violating FCC regulations.

And this genius: David McGuire, whose Overhead Door Co. received more than 400 calls for help, said ... "The military has the right to use that frequency. It is a sign of the times," he said.

If by "sign of the times" you mean "the military is getting around to testing systems that should have been up and running years ago".

Why does this article try to inject so much fear into what is a relatively straight forward issue?

Re:Technically???

[bumptehjambox]

Why does this article try to inject so much fear into what is a relatively straight forward issue?

For real. And judging by the 'omg teh gov't is teh evilz' posts here, it is working quite well.

I thought it was funny, but apparently it is a political issue to some, obviously the American Government are evil fascists for this human rights outrage.
For a few hours on one random day I was faced with the decision of whether to shut my garage door manually or wait until the test was completed...that's it, the terrorists have won.

Re:Well, that's (probably) the risk the mfct. took

[Ironsides]

The moral thing would be for the Garage Door manufactureres to pay for it as they were the ones knowingly making a product that uses a military frequency. It's not as if the DoD was just allocated this frequency last month. They've had it for decades.

Re:Well, that's (probably) the risk the mfct. took

[jesdynf]

Wait, what?

The Air Force was assigned the uncontestable right to use certain frequencies, it has made use of this right, some class B devices were manufactured that are by statute designed to fail in this exact circumstance, and now it's the government that needs to start writing checks?