Nellis could get radio system that jams garage-door openers

Thu, Dec 9, 2004 (9:53 a.m.)

Nellis Air Force Base officials don't know yet whether the base will be getting a new radio system that uses frequencies that could inconvenience residents by jamming nearby garage-door openers.

Capt. Maureen Schumann, a Nellis spokeswoman, said that communications officers at Nellis are trying to determine if Nellis will be one of the military bases moving to the frequency at which 90 percent of garage-door openers operate.

Between now and 2008, the military is supplying the new radio system to roughly 125 bases, but Pentagon officials would not disclose which bases would receive the radios.

Tests of the new system at the Navy Depot in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., have resulted in some instances where the military signal interferes with garage-door openers near the base, stopping the garage doors from opening. Residents have sometimes had to activate their opener a few feet from their door in order to get it to open.

Don Harrison, owner of Las Vegas-based garage-opener provider Harrison Door Co., said that it is too early to know exactly what the switch by the military will mean and how it will impact residents around Nellis.

"We're in a wait-and-see stance at this point," Harrison said. "We need to see if Nellis is among the bases chosen to use this system, and then we need to see what they will be using it for and what the actual effect on nearby garage-door openers is.

"Hopefully by the time we have those answers, manufacturers will have a good economical solution to the problem."

Several manufacturers and garage-door providers have formed the Safe and Secure Coalition to try to come up with a solution to the frequency fallout, Harrison said.

"Right now the solution would be to install an external receiver on a garage door so that a different frequency could be used," Harrison said. "That is probably a cost of $60 to $70, not counting labor."

The military's new system operates at between 380 and 400 megahertz, and most garage-door openers run at 390 megahertz. There are also openers that operate at 315 megahertz that wouldn't be impacted.

The military has owned the 390 megahertz frequency since 1950, but U.S. law allows low-power electronic devices to operate on military frequencies if they don't cause interference. The military has not used the frequency much in the past, and garage-door openers don't operate with enough power to disturb military usage of the frequency.

Harrison said he couldn't really gauge the impact that the new radios would have. Government and industry officials have estimated that some garage doors could be affected anywhere between 10 and 50 miles around a base.

"These things are generally in a relatively small radius around military facilities," Michael D. Gallagher, chief of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, told the Associated Press. "The period of inconvenience is generally around when they start up the system. Generally consumers can try again after letting a short pause go by."

Linton Wells II, Pentagon acting chief information officer, predicted the effect will only be noticed within 10 miles of a base.

The new radios are part of an $800 million project to use the military's airwaves more efficiently, defense officials said. All bases are getting new radios, with about 125 receiving those that function at the frequency of garage-door openers.

The radios are used for routine and emergency communications and training purposes.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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