Slashdot Mirror
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."
No, the Air Force does not have the right to that frequency. That frequency is in use by millions of people for their garage doors.
This has nothing to do with rights, there never were any rights to those frequencies for the public, they were never anything more than a secondary user.
Isn't that a bit backwards? I mean, it's the government serving the people, eh? The people as a whole own the airwaves and we merely allow the government to regulate them for our own good. If the method and allocations they choose are disagreeable to us we have the right to petition them to change it.
That said, there's probably a better solution in this case, like switching to other frequencies (already mentioned), using lasers instead, or building a national public transportation system so that we don't even need cars/garages.