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Pirate Radio Station In Florida Jams Automotive Electronics
New submitter titanium93 writes "For months, dozens of people could not use their keyless entry systems to unlock or start their cars when parked in the vicinity of the eight-story Regents bank building in Hollywood, FL. Once the cars were towed to the dealership for repair, the problem went away. The problem resolved itself when police found equipment on the bank's roof that was broadcasting a bootleg radio station. A detective and an FCC agent found the equipment hidden underneath an air conditioning chiller. The man who set up the station has not been found, but he faces felony charges and fines of at least $10,000 if he is caught. The radio station was broadcasting Caribbean music around the clock on 104.7 FM."
From the article:
Most drivers were forced to read their owner's manual to learn how to access their manual key, Camara said.
Keyless entry systems might be handy (although yet another security risk), but having a keyless system with no key backup is insane. Do these people also get their car towed when the keyless entry battery dies? Or if the car battery dies? I would never accept a system that didn't have some form of alternate entry and starting.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I don't understand. 104.7 FM is a part of the spectrum allocated for radio broadcast. Why was that interfering with keyless entry systems? Is this just an issue of too much power?
I'd bet it was corroded feedline or antenna connection not protected against the salt air. If it formed a diode, it would set up a strong 3rd harmonic right next to the 315 Mhz band used by keyless remotes according to Wikipedia. Without that, they may have been able to stay on the air much longer.
I love how Wikipedia makes it easy to give a lot more context for these type of explanations. 8)
" "We were blaming it on the police. The police were blaming it on the courthouse. We didn't know what was going on.""
Maybe you should stop blaming people for things when you don't know what's going on?
""Something mystical was going on,""
And there it is. people ascribe something as mystical and then they stop using their brain. This is why SCAMs* are dangerous. "It's energy and mysterious? well then I guess we can't find a real answer."
This thing happens, and it's always in the same area. Clearly Aliens.
"Most drivers were forced to read their owner's manual to learn how to access their manual key, Camara said."
Sigh.
*Supplements and Complementary and Alternative Medicines
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The third harmonic of 104.7 is 314.1 Mhz. Keyless entry systems operate at 314.93 Mhz. The bootleg transmitter/antenna likely didn't have any filtering to reduce spurious emisions or harmonics.
Having been in the industry (broadcast) the issue was not with the FM band transmission. The illegal transmitter was most likely home built, improperly adjusted, and lacking harmonic filters and a narrow band tuned antenna. Most transmitters do not run class A or Class AB amplification like a low distrotion audio amplifier, but in Class C a clipped mode transmission rich in harmonics for high energy effeciency (like a switched mode power supply) and the output is filtered with a resonant tuned tank circuit. If the bootleg transmitter was not tuned, or lacked the tuned tank and tuned resonant antenna, then he was not only broadcasting in the FM band but also providing lots of energy on harmonics of the fundemental.
Fundimental is 104.7
2nd harmonic is 209.4
3rd harmonic is 314.1
My car remote is in the 315 MHZ range and would be impacted by this. The FM signal is not a narrow band frequency as it is Frequency Modulated. It could easily overlap the range used by car remotes. Not getting into the car is only one issue. The second issue is the problem with the chip in the key for anti theft immobolization.
The truth shall set you free!
A lot of keyless entry systems work in the ISM frequencies around 433.920MHz - which is annoyingly close to one of the commonly-used 70cm channels around here.
It's possible that he was using a UHF link to his TX site to avoid detection, somewhere around 433.9MHz.
Drive a shitty car with the doors unlocked and the key in the ignition. Worked for me for over a decade now!
104.7 FM brings you the best jams~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Not only was he broadcasting pirate radio but he did it in the commerical frequency range, more likely to interfere with a licensed operator (who wants that ad money) and get the FCC called to investigate.
...
We're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin', we're jammin';
Hope you like jammin', too.
Credits to Bob Marley
Anyone else finding this amusing?
'"At first I thought it was me," said Jacobson, who started to say a little prayer every time she tried to use her electronic key.'
God: Messing with people's vehicles since 4000BC.
And he would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling keys.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
We be jammin'
It's right there in the lyrics!
Yep, 3rd harmonic, probably from an unfiltered Class C power amp -- and it will desense those silly little receivers if it doesn't block them completely. The more modern ones have some front-end filtering, but not a lot.
A lot of automotive stuff in that frequency range -- keyless entry, TPM (tire pressure monitoring), and garage door openers.
I'm surprised nobody has gone after the protocols to see how many low tire pressure warnings they can set off at once...
I think that the KA9DGX combination of characters and numbers that is the GP's screen name should ring a bell to any self-respecting /.ter.
Ezekiel 23:20
The illegal transmitter was most likely home built, improperly adjusted, and lacking harmonic filters and a narrow band tuned antenna. Most transmitters do not run class A or Class AB amplification like a low distrotion audio amplifier, but in Class C a clipped mode transmission rich in harmonics for high energy effeciency (like a switched mode power supply) and the output is filtered with a resonant tuned tank circuit. If the bootleg transmitter was not tuned, or lacked the tuned tank and tuned resonant antenna, then he was not only broadcasting in the FM band but also providing lots of energy on harmonics of the fundemental.
Yes, but couldn't we just reverse the phase-charge polarity of the main deflector array, route the backup thermoquantum buffers through the primary energy manifold, and use a timed tachyon-gamma pulse to cancel out the interference?
I initially thought this while reading the article, but then I realized that the people interviewed were people who lived in the apartments and thus parked in that lot every night.
I too would have my car towed to a dealership after this happened more than a few times - especially with a new car. A pirate radio station is so far outside of the realm of everyday possibilities of your car malfunctioning that even some basic troubleshooting would have completely missed this issue.
Yes, but Sherlock Holmes is also a master of disguise.
~From article
And as soon as you drive it to the dealer, it starts working normally again, thereby becoming a wasted trip. Better to have the dealer/towing service come and see the problem while it is failing instead of being put into the 'idiot who does not know how to use keyless entry' file.
And we know its a "HE" because?
As someone else pointed out, because TFA said so.
But lacking that, "he" is still the correct word because in the English language "he" is both a third-person pronoun referring to "a particular person who is a man" and a third-person pronoun referring to "a person of unknown gender". This is why people who use the pronoun "she" to demonstrate their "cultural sensitivity" are just confusing, because they have forced a gender specificity on the antecedent when none really exists. How do they know it was a woman? Those who understand the language are left trying to figure out why there is something specific to women involved, or why it matters.
And those who use "he or she" are really saying "any person or a woman..."
He's probably using a UHF link (see Technician's posts above). Most repeater transmitters can be left alone for a long time. There are thousands of similar radios on mountaintops all over the world, visited perhaps once or twice a year - usually to service the batteries. If it's hooked up to the grid, even less reason to visit it.
And getting into the maintenance area of a low security building isn't all that hard. Didn't you watch all of those Mission Impossible series on TV?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Instead spending time writing your little PC rant, you could have just read TFA.
Four days after they removed the equipment, a man identifying himself as "Jay" left a message for a maintenance worker at the bank building, police say. When the worker returned the call, "Jay" asked if he'd taken his equipment. The answer: No, but the cops did.
Are you sure? My wife's 2012 Kia Soul is keyless entry (with a physical key inside the fob) and doesn't have a visible key slot, but does apparently have one in the glove box for such situations.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
The majority of faults in all technology disappear when exposed to an engineer. Engineers exude technology friendly vibes. (And dont try to dance to Carribean music while putting the key in the slot, unless they are Jamaican, in which case no problem, man!)
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
Yes, you could have your mechanic come to the car and see the problem as it is occurring, and that would probably be a good idea, but that is not what the OP said. And, it would still be stupid for them to tow the car back (they should just drive it).
When I have had my car towed, the person driving the tow truck has not been there to diagnose problems with my car. He only want to move my car from where it was to where I wanted it to be.
And honestly, if I worked at a dealership and someone had a car towed in for a malfunctioning key fob when the car could easily have been driven then I would go ahead and open the 'idiot who ...' filing drawer and then figure out where to file it. Because it is going in there somewhere.
You must be new here!
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
...before the auto exec took over and ruined it...
If you think the auto exec is bad, wait until you see the config sys!
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"