Air Force Jams Garage Doors 335
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."
Re:Technically??? (Score:2, Informative)
Be glad they are not taking the entire house to put in a super highway and its just your door that isnt working.
It was snowing that day too... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Maybe the A.F. should replace the door openers? (Score:4, Informative)
David McGuire, whose Overhead Door Co. received more than 400 calls for help, said the Air Force may be able to slightly adjust the transmission frequency to solve the problem. If not, it will cost homeowners about $250 to have new units installed.
Re:Technically??? (Score:5, Informative)
According to the US Department of Commerce, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf [doc.gov], the 335.4 to 399.9 MHz band is licensed exclusively to the government.
Sorry for the lack of HTML skills.
Re:Technically??? (Score:5, Informative)
Ah yes - the immediate assumption that the citizens are in the right, and the goverment in the wrong. Only in this case, that assumption is wrong.
Garage door openers are what are called class 'B' devices - devices that transmit using extremely low power and are unlicensed and unregulated. Because they are extremely low power, they can pretty much use any band they want. In exchange for this freedom from licensing and regulation however, theres a catch - owners of class 'B' devices may not interfere with legal and/or licensed users of the band in question, and must accept any interference from said legal and/or licensed users of the band in question. This is usually spelled out in tiny, tiny print in the users manual.
That being said - you'd be surprised how much class 'B' (sometimes called 'part 15') devices you have in your house. I bet if you check the manuals for your computer (or motherboard), your stereo, your TV, any radios, etc... I bet they all carry the appropriate disclaimers.
Re:Mission Accomplished (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. Garage door openers are Class B (or Part 15) devices - which mean they are extremely low power. The first responders would only be jammed if someone pointed a garage door opener right at them from less than 30-40 feet away.
Unless you lived in NYC or DC - I'm hardly surpised you didn't hear EPS broadcasts. The EPS is for local use - and thus would not have been activated unless the attacks were local to you.
Canadian instance (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Technically??? (Score:2, Informative)
Garage door openers, RFID tags, baby monitors, cordless phones, wireless microphones, wireless routers and many other devces are unlicensed devices. They are permitted to operate only when they do not cause interferance to licensed service. They are not garanteed to operate if a licensed service is operating near by.
Radio spectrum is scarce. The Air Force has had a license to those frequencies since 1934. RTFM that came with the garage door opener. The manufacturer clearly states a garage door opener is an unlicensed device and as such a licensed operator can have the unlicensed device shut down if interference occurs. Further the FCC can fine an operator of an unlicensed device $10,000 if he continue to use it to cause interfere with a licensed service. On the other hand, a licensed user has no responsibility to protect the unlicensed user from interferance.
If you want garanteed operation, purchase a device with a licensed central dispatch, obtain a license to use that frequency and pay the monthly dispatch fee for the licensed service. Otherwise, don't complain when you get something (like the use of radio spectrum) for free. Especially when someone else owns the rights to that spectrum.
Re:Mission Accomplished (Score:5, Informative)
So the test was a total success. Because it proved, in undeniable public, that in the event of an emergency, the first responders around essential Air Force bases would be getting jammed by people opening their garage doors.
Yeah, a system operating out of Cheyenne mountain with an antenna on the peak and a range of miles is going to be affected by a bunch of milliwatt transmitters with an effective range of about 100 feet. Time for you to go back to Radio Theory 101.
These tests are important. That's why I was stunned when I realized (3 years later) that on September 11, 2001, I didn't hear a single transmission of the Emergency Broadcast System. If ever there were an emergency during my lifetime that the public needed broadcasts to know what what was happening and what to do, it was multiple aerial bombings of NYC and the Pentagon. But there was nothing.
Though we'd all been taught since childhood to be always at least a little bit subconsciously afraid, but trusting the government had a system to handle even the ultimate emergency: nuclear war. And endured countless nerve-rattling drills, usually interrupting the most otherwise "relaxing" TV and radio (PBS, mostly).
The Emergency Broadcast System was retired in 1994. The current system is teh Emergency Alert System. This name more accurately describes its purpose. It's not meant to be a news channel. On 9-11 we had plenty of those already. The purpose of the EBS is to inform people that they may need to take action, and take it quickly. Things like wildfires, flash floods, or tsunamis--- those are what you use the EBS for. Since the appropriate action in the aftermath of a plane hitting a building is to essentially stay calm, stay put, and let emergency crews do their job, the EBS was not needed. I've heard the EBS used for real locally. The message is usually terse, prerecorded, and informative only in a very limited way, briefly outlining the danger, its location, and what to do. You know, something along the lines of "Flash flood warning for the eastern county, stay out of the lower canyons area, highways A, B, and C are closed". This weird fantasy you have in your head where Walter Cronkite is supposed to come on the air over EBS and give us the low-down on what's up is laughable in the extreme.
I guess those weren't "tests" at all. They were the real thing: steady fear/trust propaganda.
Yeah, OK. I don't trust the government either, but I haven't let paranoia turn me into a freak about it. The EAS works fine. You just don't know what it's for. You've apparently formulated an expectation based not upon the stated purpose of the system, but upon armchair speculation after having the EAS/EBS tone interrupt your viewing of National Geographic Explorer a few too many times.
Never really expected to do anything in any kind of emergency, even survivable ones like 9/11/2001. Because they all delivered the desired result.
I'd still love to hear what you think the EAS should have broadcast on 9-11.
So maybe these Air Force tests are really failures. Because instead of keeping people irrationally afraid, yet trusting the government, they've actually woken people up.
Yeah.... sure. You know conspiracy nuts like you are all the same. You're all secretly (or not secretly!) obsessive/compulsive control freaks. You all believe there's some sort of sinister puppet master behind the scenes, twisting the government to their will. You can't bear to consider the real truth, that for the most part the bad things that happen are completely unpredictable and mostly unavoidable. Stupid things the government does or fails to do are not part of some grand plan by a criminal mastermind, but simply a byproduct of the sheer size of government. Its very size creates an incredible amount of inertia, and when it does manage to move, it's either too much or too little, and often in the wrong direction. In short nobody is in contr
Frequency Usage (Score:5, Informative)
There really is NOT much else they can do... (Score:5, Informative)
Unless a manufacturer of wireless gadgets wants to require every user to get a license (not an option for most gear), there is basically NO way to avoid the Part 15 restrictions; licensed users (emergency services, licensed commercial radio systems, and militery users) will always trump nonlicensed users. It won't happen often, but when it does, ya just gotta live with it.
Re:Technically??? (Score:2, Informative)
notwithstanding use in commercial, business and industrial environments.
(device or system) that generates and uses timing signals or pulses at a rate in excess of 9,000 pulses
(cycles) per second and uses digital techniques; inclusive of telephone equipment that uses digital
techniques or any device or system that generates and uses radio frequency energy for the purpose of
performing data processing functions, such as electronic computations, operations, transformations,
recording, filing, sorting, storage, retrieval, or transfer. A radio frequency device that is specifically
subject to an emanation requirement in any other FCC Rule Part or an intentional radiator subject to
Subpart C of this Part that contains a digital device is not subject to the standards for digital devices,
provided the digital device is used only to enable operation of the radio frequency device and the digital
device does not control additional functions or capabilities. Note: Computer terminals and peripherals
that are intended to be connected to a computer are digital devices.
If anyone is interested, the Part 15 regulations can be found here: http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/rules/part15/part15-8
Re:Canadian instance (Score:1, Informative)
Let me describe to you the US Embassy in Ottawa: The embassy is protected by panes of bomb-proof glass. Then there is a 10 foot buffer zone. Circling the buffer zone is a 10 foot tall steel gate. Then there is another 2 feet buffer zone on the street level. Finally, surrounding that, are concrete pillars.
But that's not all. Post-9/11, the US embassy cut off the high-traffic road that's around the building (remember: the embassy is in downtown Ottawa.) So outside of those concrete pillars, which is itself outside a buffer, steel shield, another buffer, and bomb-proof glass, is yet another 5 foot buffer zone, followed by a 4 foot tall concrete wall.
It's overkill. It's costing the city in aesthetics and practicality (lane reduction.) So whilst I agree with you that there is a real danger in Canada, the removal of that concrete would not place the US embassy itself in danger. I know this is beside your point, I just wanted to point that out for anyone not familiar with the brute of a building.
Re:Technically??? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Fault lies with door manufacturers (Score:4, Informative)
Who said they did?
"Interference" is not a reflexive relation. If you put a WAP next to six microwaves, you're going to have problems with your wi-fi network [thedailywtf.com]. But your WAP isn't going to overcook your food.
This story is about the USAF's use blocking garage door openers, not the other way around.
The questions is *when* did the US gov't acquire this frequency?
Another poster [slashdot.org] says 1934.
Re:Technically??? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't have any problems with my 420MHz board, in fact I get a better range with my remotes on 420MHz. If you are having problems with an opener made by Chamberlain (LiftMaster, Craftsman, etc) give them a call at (800) 528-5880 and explain the problems you are having and mention that you live near an Air Force Base, and they will likely send out a replacement board free of cost.
If you do have to pay, it is ~$60USD for a new logic board. They are very easy to replace.
Re:Technically??? / NTIA assigns gov. use (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Technically??? / NTIA assigns gov. use (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fault lies with door manufacturers (Score:1, Informative)