Marine signal knocks out garage door openers
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/26/signal.marines.ap/index.html
 
Marine signal knocks out garage door openers

QUANTICO, Virginia (AP) -- For many suburbanites, life without garage
door openers is unimaginable.
But neighbors of the Marine base here have been reduced to just that
after a strong radio signal coming from the facility began neutralizing
remote-control openers.
Residents have had to spend hundreds of dollars on new systems.

"I feel there should be some kind of compensation," said Queen Carroll,
who is in her early 70s and was forced to buy a new receiver and remote.
"I am a struggling widow, if you will, and I praise the Lord I'm still
here, but I am on a budget. When things like this come up totally
unexpected, it is very upsetting."

Repair shops started getting a flurry of calls when the base began using
the frequency in late December.
Last fall, residents around an Air Force facility in Colorado Springs
saw their garage-door remotes stop working when the 21st Space Wing
began testing a frequency for use during homeland security emergencies
or threats. Two years ago, testing of a similar system in Fort Detrick
in Maryland resulted in similar problems.

For decades, the military has held a portion of the radio spectrum, from
138 to 450 megahertz, in reserve. That part was borrowed by
remote-control manufacturers, with the understanding that the signal be
weak enough to be overridden by the military.
The reserve frequencies became active after the September 11, 2001,
attacks, when officials discovered that first responders could not
communicate with one another because they were operating radios on
different frequencies.

The Defense Department is using the mothballed frequencies in a system
that eventually will link military and civilian emergency responders.

"Consumer wireless devices, such as garage door openers, operate on an
unlicensed basis, meaning they are required to accept any interference
from licensed spectrum users, including the Department of Defense," said
Lt. Brian P. Donnelly, a spokesman for the Quantico base.