Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jakon Hays, who shares a link to the following article at Inside NOVA:
A top-secret and secure federal government facility just northwest of Warrenton admitted this week it may be responsible for crippling dozens of garage door openers in two nearby subdivisions, FauquierNow.com’s Don Del Ross writes.
More than 70 Olde Gold Cup and Silver Cup Estates homeowners have reported that openers started to fail about two weeks ago, according to Betty Compton, Olde Gold Cup’s Neighborhood Watch group coordinator.
Warrenton Training Center B, a classified federal facility, issued a statement this week saying its radios may be to blame.[…]
Click here to read the full article.
This is interesting. I’ve heard this is a very common complaint in/around large broadcast facilities. Whether or not it’s always true is up for debate, but I should think it would be easy to test the RF environment in the area and confirm.
Or is it a failed attempt of Trojan technology to bring down a national security site with garage door openers
This is a typical problem caused by cheap comsumer electronics: The receivers have next to no selectivity and low large-signal capabilities.
Any large signal within several % of the nominal receiving frequency blocks the receiver. There is a good possibility that the military facility was not “responsible for crippling” but the (Chinese?) manucaturers of the garage opener receivers are. But explain that to someone with ZERO knowledge of RF electronics…