EVERETT — Did your garage door opener stop working Tuesday?
If you live in Everett, the reason might be floating in Port Gardner.
The USS Abraham Lincoln pulled into port earlier this week, after completing several weeks of training off the coast of California.
Inevitably, that
means some garage door openers and keyless entry remotes for cars malfunction around town.
It happens to Kathleen Fitzpatrick. She lives in the north part of town near Everett Community College and her garage opener won’t work any time the Lincoln is in port.
But, she said, that’s better than when she lived on Baker Avenue. At her last house, her garage would open by itself in the middle of the day.
It sounds like a tinfoil-hat theory, but it’s true: Sometimes the aircraft carrier’s comings and goings cause devices with remote controls to go haywire.
“We hear this here and in other areas where there are military bases,” said Kristin Ching, the spokeswoman for Naval Station Everett.
Ching said she gets calls about it just about every time the Lincoln is arriving or departing.
It’s been a problem for years for Christine Malone, who lives in a century-old house in north Everett with views of the base.
She suspected the aircraft carrier might be involved, after she noted that her malfunctioning garage door opener seem to coincide with the Lincoln’s arrivals.
She’s tried switching garage door openers and changing the frequency. Nothing worked.
“I’m proud of our servicemen,” she said. “But it would be really nice if it didn’t mess with my garage door.”
This isn’t unique to Everett and likely will continue when the USS Nimitz replaces the Lincoln this winter. It’s happened in other spots around the country and multiple times in Bremerton.
On one memorable occasion a decade ago, virtually every new car dealership in the Bremerton area was inundated with calls from people whose remote keyless entry devices weren’t working — right when the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson returned.
Here’s why it happens.
Garage door openers and other remote control items use radio frequencies that are licensed for use by the military. In effect, the manufacturers of garage door openers and the like have borrowed military frequencies for years, Ching said.
Keyless remotes and garage door openers operate at very low power and when a stronger signal moves into the area, it overpowers the weaker signals.
The same signals aren’t used all the time by the Navy.
“They don’t always use the same frequencies,” Ching said. “They are on reserve. Certain times they use them or they may use different ones in the spectrum.”
In the past, this was less of a problem because much of the frequency spectrum wasn’t in use. In fact, that’s one of the reasons garage door manufacturers liked using those frequencies.
With commercial wireless networks gobbling up bandwidth, the military is now using more of their licensed frequencies.
Just what the military might be using those frequencies for, the Naval Station spokeswoman wouldn’t say.
The military is licensed to operate radio systems within the 380 megahertz to 399.98 megahertz spectrum. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration describe frequencies in the range from 225 megahertz to 328.6 megahertz as those used by military agencies for “a major tactical radio communications system providing anti-jam, secure, frequency-hopping radio communications system.”
Ching did send along a Federal Communications Commission press release explaining why people living near military installations might have problems with their garage openers. The material indicated that a relatively new narrowband communications system used at most U.S. bases might be interfering with garage door openers, too.
It’s impossible to know who might be affected, according to the release. And forget complaining to the naval base. Under federal law, the military’s needs take precedence.
In some cases, the problem resolves itself in a few days.
If it doesn’t, the FCC suggests that consumers contact garage door opener manufacturers for a solution. It may be necessary to buy a replacement transmitter and receiver that operate on a different frequency.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197; dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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