I was at a house in Leesburg to watch the Skins game on Sunday 12-4pm (Oct7), and my keyless entry remote for my car would not work at all.

And the homeowner responded that her garage door opener remote wasn't working either. Then when others stopped by, we found that the doorbell (remote system) wasn't working either. Of the 4 cars at the house, only 1 would respond to their keyless remote. That car being a Hyundai (korean). The other 3 cars were Japanese.

The obvious explanation is that all the inoperable remotes use the same/similar frequency, and that this frequency was being jammed by some powerful radio frequency causing interference.

On the drive home, I kept pressing my keyless remote to see when I'd be out of range of the interference, and it wasn't until I neared 66/28 that my keyless remote started working again.


Anyone else experience remote (garage door, keyless entry, etc) problems on Sunday in the Leesburg area?

You can always ask the military! :)

The aliens are coming!!!!

LovingMan Wrote:
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> I was at a house in Leesburg to watch the Skins
> game on Sunday 12-4pm (Oct7), and my keyless entry
> remote for my car would not work at all.
>
> And the homeowner responded that her garage door
> opener remote wasn't working either. Then when
> others stopped by, we found that the doorbell
> (remote system) wasn't working either. Of the 4
> cars at the house, only 1 would respond to their
> keyless remote. That car being a Hyundai (korean).
> The other 3 cars were Japanese.
>
> The obvious explanation is that all the inoperable
> remotes use the same/similar frequency, and that
> this frequency was being jammed by some powerful
> radio frequency causing interference.
>
> On the drive home, I kept pressing my keyless
> remote to see when I'd be out of range of the
> interference, and it wasn't until I neared 66/28
> that my keyless remote started working again.
>
>
> Anyone else experience remote (garage door,
> keyless entry, etc) problems on Sunday in the
> Leesburg area?


Was the house near any large towers (radio, cellphone, high tension?). I've experienced the same thing when I am near something like that. If your friend lives next door to it, just think of what it is doing to his testicles.

sure it wasnt low battery?

I read somewhere that the FCC can "take back" frequencies if they are needed elsewhere.

The article was about thousands of garage door openers that no longer work in the Quantico area...the Marines are now using the frequency.

edit: here it is

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/27/military-rf-kills-ga.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2007 11:48AM by duh.

In Leesburg there is the FAA HQ, so maybe that could be it. That would explain it not working all the way down to past Dulles airport.

FWIW, the FAA headquarters is in southwest DC right along Independence.


KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> In Leesburg there is the FAA HQ, so maybe that
> could be it. That would explain it not working all
> the way down to past Dulles airport.

i dunno about you guys, but if I was a terrorist, and I had to get a BIG message out.. i would use garage door opener frequencies.. nobody would ever look there..

The Leesburg FAA facility is an ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center), and the radars and repeaters are on Mt. Weather and (I think) Mt. Hopewell, but I thought that center was scheduled to move to Vint Hill...

YEs but with that much air traffic (no pun) theres bound to be some interference. Theres like 3 airports with ATC, plus planes, plus all the communications between it.

>
> Anyone else experience remote (garage door,
> keyless entry, etc) problems on Sunday in the
> Leesburg area?

OP, with my IQ(hovers around 363), I can call you an IDIOT.
The drop in temp of the batteries in these devices, caused the inoperability.
When you reached 66/28, that was enough time for these batteries to reach OPERABLE temp, and begin to work.

Source:Gold Star on reddit

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In Leesburg there is the FAA HQ, so maybe that
> could be it. That would explain it not working all
> the way down to past Dulles airport.

FAA wants the airwaves clear. testing is not done where it could effect air traffic or civilians

bdimag Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i dunno about you guys, but if I was a terrorist,
> and I had to get a BIG message out.. i would use
> garage door opener frequencies.. nobody would ever
> look there..

terrorist don't have the technology to do that

big players can use satellite and don't need any "messy solutions"

the message from about anyone would be encrypted these days, appear to be noise

It's a federal offense to even have equipment that does that "when broken".

Obviously if the feds found a signal they'd triangulate it and arrest the person. They wouldn't have to prove it was espionage or not.

They'd only let you go if they determined the equipment had a flaw and you had not known it.

OP's claim that it started working near 66/28 seems...questionable.

Not claiming it's impossible, but after driving probably well over 100 cars (I travel some for work), I honestly cannot think of one whose remote did anything while driving.