Military Signals May Jam Garage-Door Openers
Coming soon to dozens of military bases around the United States: radio signals strong enough to jam nearby garage-door openers.
Source: CNNBetween now and 2008, the military is supplying a new radio system to roughly 125 bases that uses the same frequency as the one relied upon by more than 90 percent of the remotely operated openers, Pentagon and industry officials say.
The military radio signal is sometimes so strong that it overpowers the opener's signal, preventing the door from opening. Or it can also vastly reduce the opener's range, forcing the user to walk close to the garage before it will open.
Unless another solution is reached, the consumer will either have to live with the inconvenience or pay to fix the problem.
The cheapest fix would be to manually replace parts of the opener so it will use a different frequency -- probably a $60 job, said Mark Karasek, technical director of a manufacturers' group formed in response to the military radio rollout. Calling a technician to do it for you will probably run double that, he said.
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