The army causes stalling garage doors
Posted on juin 12, 2013 by Frank
The following story is somewhat funny. Historically, in opposition to its peaceful neighbor Canada, the United States of America have been known to deeply support the development of a strong army. It is, as of today, the world’s most feared military force. Even though Americans are proud, they can also feel dissatisfied as well sometimes. The last complaint addressed to the army was not about unacceptable behavior abroad or spending too much money on expensive equipment: it concerned stalling garage doors. Are you skeptical about it? Keep on reading and you’ll find out what happened.
This beautiful garage door could have a hard time opening up if the army decides so…
A peaceful town in Georgia
Augusta is a town of approximately 192 000 people. Situated near Fort Gordon, it had to face a surprising discovery after a new radio tower was built nearby: for no clear reason, nearly 500 homes were unable to open their garage doors. Imagine the turmoil for car owners who were trying to go to work when it happened at first. Of course, manual opening of the garage doors was still possible, but when you buy a garage door opener, you generally intend on using it for your own convenience…
The army is to be blamed
The frequency used by the garage doors’ openers was a 390 megahertz bandwidth. The problem is that Fort Gordon, a military base situated nearby, decided to test a new emergency call system that was located exactly on the same frequency. Because of that, most remotes became either completely useless or now need to be used a few feet away from the garage door.
Even though the Army was intending to notify the inhabitants of Augusta about the upcoming changes, it finally started its tests sooner than what was initially supposed. Imagine if this would have happened to Montreal garage door owners, a city in Canada where people hate military investments and military operations in general!
What will happen?
Of course, the situation can not stay like this. However, since low frequencies belong to the Army itself, it is not possible to say whether they will make a switch or if Augusta’s inhabitants will have to adapt themselves. The alternatives for them would be to invest in new garage door openers that would be based on other frequencies, but the price tag, which can go up to 170$ for some models, is pretty discouraging for these families.
The company that had installed these garage doors, the Overhead Door Corporation, is receiving hundreds of calls right now in regards to the situation. Right now, everybody is waiting for the army to take a decision. Since more than 40 000 000 garage owners in the United States are vulnerable to interference because of similar operations, the decision that will be taken could potentially affect many people in the future, when similar problems will arise in other American cities. Let’s hope everybody will find a happy ending! Otherwise, garage door manufacturers and installers will make a lot of money from an unexpected business opportunity.