Keyless Car & Garage Entry Mystery

klastv.com ^ | 2/20/04

[Rams82]

(Feb. 20) -- Have you had problems with your keyless car remote? You weren't alone. It happened to hundreds of people here in the Valley. The problem is the remotes for car doors and garage doors didn't work for many people Friday. Why, is the big question.

Mechanics at the dealerships don't know why. Neither does the National Weather Service. 8 On Your Side spoke with a Mark Garner the Chair of the Science Department at Community College of Southern Nevada, who said; possibly it has to do with some type of device being used to jam frequencies.

8 On Your Side called Nellis Air Force Base and they said it's not them, which leaves car dealerships to deal with the problem. "Well we've had a flood of them come in today and tell us there cars won't start," says Steve Grossardt of Gaudin Ford, "They're going to parts departments and putting batteries and still won't work, they're coming to us and asking to reprogram them and we're telling them it's not us causing the problem."

So what do you do if you can't get in your car? It may remind you of yesteryear, but the key still opens the door. If your car won't start, Grossardt reminds everyone there is a bypass button.

[Miss Marple]

Very curious. I don't know enough about this to speculate, but it seems a bit sinister to me.

[A CA Guy]

Sounds like the auto industry threw a switch, the public responded with repairs and the cash registers at the dealerships went CA-GING!

[Waco]

All Fords?

[hmmmmm]

While the situation, itself, is odd, so is the reporter's spelling. The problem; "Well we've had a flood of them come in today and tell us there cars won't start..."

[kenth]

Disturbance in the force/matrix hiccup

[Fabozz]

Could be an earthquake warning sign. When pressure shifts on a fault line, it can generate electrical and magnetic effects. The effects can occur even a few weeks before the quake, as the stress builds up. It'd be strange for this to affect only the frequency range of garage door openers (288 to 414 MHz) without affecting other communications, though.

[Fabozz]

Whoops, I didn't read closely enough—the "Valley" they're talking about is in Nevada, not the San Fernando Valley. Forget the earthquake idea; must be the aliens out at Area 51. :)

[Rams82]

Does anyone know if there is any military asset in this area besides the air force base that someone could be trying to affect?

[Fledermaus]

Sounds like some spoiled brat got a new radio controlled vehicle! lol

[EGPWS]

Very curious. I don't know enough about this to speculate, but it seems a bit sinister to me.

FM...; )

[July 4th]

Perhaps the person misspoke. ;)

[EGPWS]

Disturbance in the force/matrix hiccup

Your scaring me!

Stop it!! LoL's

[Rams82]

Maybe the military is testing a new secret weapon

[EGPWS]

Confucius say, when in doubt about electronics, distance kept from HAM radio operators, comforting.

[Gorons]

THEY LIE! I live in the Seattle area, and we have two Navy bases and an Army base within 75-150 miles of Downtown Seattle. They always deny this, the root cause .. Then weeks or months later, you see an article similar to one like this (following article published in 2001):

http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2001/march/03271akeyless.html

Electronic woes have plagued other Navy ports
By Lloyd A. Pritchett Sun Staff

Bremerton isn't the only Navy port of call to experience mysterious problems with remote-control devices. It has happened before in other places where electromagnetic frequencies used by Navy ships' high-tech gear collides with consumer devices that share the same frequencies.

In one of the more widely publicized incidents, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln created electronic chaos when it pulled into Santa Barbara, Calif., for a port call in February 2000.

The ship's antennas and electronic gear disrupted keyless remote entries for vehicles within an eight-mile radius of the waterfront. But that's not all. The emissions also triggered car alarms and caused remote-controlled garage doors all over the city to malfunction.

Radio emissions from the ship even shut down some vehicles' electronic ignition systems, according to a report in the local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News Press.

Ship's officials apologized and did everything they could to minimize the problems, but the electronic disruptions continued until the ship pulled out of port several days later.

Other incidents have been less well-publicized but still irksome for those affected.

At Naval Air Station Oceana near Norfolk, Va., it's commonplace for keyless remote entry devices to fail, possibly due to powerful antennas or radar systems at the base.

A few complaints have been registered about keyless remote devices failing inside Naval Station Everett when USS Abraham Lincoln is testing radar gear.

The problem seems to occur most frequently when military facilities use frequencies in the 100- to 900-megahertz range of the ultra-high frequency band, which is commonly assigned to household electronic remote devices, experts say.

But the military isn't the only possible source of such emissions.

Interference also can be caused by some cable TV gear and some police communications gear.

Solar activity can even affect such consumer electronic devices, but such interference usually only lasts a few minutes during strong solar storms and stops when the sun goes down, space weather experts say.

Published in The Sun: 03/27/2001

[mwyounce]

There sounds just like their on TV... print journalists may have to worry about it, but not TV reporters. ;-)

[melsec]

Disturbance in the force/matrix hiccup

Your scaring me!

Even worse - a tear in the space/time continuim.

Mel

[Positive]

"All Fords?"

Found On Road Dead

[Rams82]

anyone know how to post images??