Thanks to Dave Rickmers
for e-mailing this information: PUBLIC
NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12
th St., S. W. Washington, D. C. 20554 News Media
Information 202 / 418- 0500 Internet: https:// www.
fcc. gov TTY: 1- 888- 835- 5322
PRESS CONTACT:
DA 05- 424 Bruce Romano: 202- 418- 2124 February
15, 2005
Consumers May Experience Interference
To Their Garage Door Opener Controls Near Military
Bases
Consumers near certain military installations
have recently experienced interference to their
garage door opener controls that may reduce the
operating distance or cause the device to stop operating.
This public notice is issued to explain the cause
of the interference and the steps being taken to
alleviate this problem. The vast majority of consumers
will not experience any interference to their garage
door opener controls.
Garage door openers
operate, legally under Part 15 of the Commissions
rules, at very low power on an “unlicensed basis,”
and have been permitted to operate on frequencies
that have been reserved for the federal government
since WWII for air/ ground communications systems,
but received limited use by the government for many
years. As unlicensed devices, there is no right
to protection from interference. However, because
of this limited use, the risk of interference was
similarly limited, so manufacturers of garage door
openers chose these frequencies for their transmit
and receive devices. In response to the increased
needs of homeland security, the Department of Defense
now must make more use of these frequencies to deploy
new mobile radio systems on and around certain military
bases.
Some consumers near these bases may
experience interference to their garage door openers
that can reduce operating range or cause the remote
control to cease functioning. This interference
will not cause the garage doors to open or close
on their own. Inside the garage, wall- mounted push
buttons will not be affected by any interference
that might occur, and will continue to operate normally.
It is not possible to predict in advance
which specific users or locations near military
bases may experience interference, because of the
variety of technical characteristics of garage door
controls and configuration of the mobile radio systems.
The Department of Defense is working with the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration
to make reasonable effort consistent with their
mission requirements, and the Federal Communications
Commission is working with the garage door opener
industry to make every effort on their part, to
minimize the impact to consumers.
For security
reasons, the Department of Defense cannot make information
broadly available in advance as to the deployment
of the new mobile radio systems. Individual base
commanders may make some information available to
their local communities when appropriate.
Garage door opener manufacturers stand ready
to help consumers resolve any interference to their
systems, including, in some cases, making available
for purchase, a replacement transmitter and receiver
that operate on a different frequency that is not
used by the new mobile radio systems.
Consumers
experiencing interference should contact the manufacturer
of the door opener control or their local installer
for information on available immediate solutions.
For further information on this Public Notice,
please contact the FCC Call Center at 1- 888- CALL-
FCC (1- 888- 225- 5322).
Dave Rickmers
KD6IL
RF Technician
+1 661 705 3700