Posted on 12/02/2006 12:17:25 PM PST by SmithL
DENVER-- What do remote-control garage door openers have to do with national security? A secretive Air Force facility in Colorado Springs tested a radio frequency this past week that it would use to communicate with first responders in the event of a homeland security threat. 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.
"It would have been nice not to have to get out of the car and open the door manually," said Dewey Rinehard, pointing out that the outage happened during the first cold snap of the year, with lows in the teens.
Capt. Tracy Giles of the 21st Space Wing said Air Force officials were trying to figure out how to resolve the problem of their signal overpowering garage door remotes.
"They have turned it off to be good neighbors,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
;)
All yur garage door controls are belong to US. :-)
Nothing new, here. After the Loma Prieta quake of `89, the Navy switched to its backup transmitters atop Mt. Diablo. Suddenly, garage doors started randomly going up and down all over Contra Costa County.
The Air Force stuned my garage door beeber!
Kudos to the FCC for this brilliant allocation of the radio spectrum.
So why is the garage door company using it?
In general, effects from the transmissions would be felt only within 10 miles, but the Colorado Springs signal is beamed from atop 6,184-foot Cheyenne Mountain, which likely extends the range.
No kidding.
Our garage door transmitter was unusable for months at a time in Point Loma. Then suddenly it would work again. The Navy always denied responsibility.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
Now, that does surprise me. When I was in Uncle Sam's underwater canoe-club, the phrase that were were taught was "The Navy will neither confirm nor deny . . .".
> Kudos to the FCC for this brilliant allocation of the radio spectrum <
The FCC is guilty of many sins. But this isn't one of them, since the FCC doesn't have authority over the military's use of the radio spectrum.
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