Something mysterious is blocking vehicle key fobs from working in a small Alberta town

But wait... this must be a hoax right, because secureteam10 posted this on YouTube last night

I could have sworn I saw an article on Drudge yesterday which said it was draining car batteries too.

Perhaps just an error by the media (like that could ever happen!)

originally posted by: Namdru

Key fobs work on 300 to 433 Mhz.

On top of frequency hopping.

What Project said or some dumb snip with an over powered ham radio set up.

Fobs use frequency hopping?

How stuff works

a reply to: TheOnlyBilko

What about HMCS Tecumseh? or The Mewata Armoury.
In total there are 6 CF installations in Calgary including the Museum
Now I know these aren't the sprawling area 51 sized bases.
However, they are CF none the less.

But ya CFB Calgary was closed down in 1998.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
I remember a couple grocery stores back years ago that used a RADAR band of RF to open main doors automatically, and this would trigger any RADAR detector, as it did mine, the one I had in my car at the time.

Something like that could jam key fobs I bet.

They shut the power off to the store and the problem persisted. Good idea, but I think shutting the power off rules that out.

I should have figured they would have tried that first thing.
How about some police using a phony cell tower to catch bad guys set up near the store?

originally posted by: JHumm


That Marshall amp has a big magnet in it and that will make the tv act funny

If you get an old tube TV of the sort that are frequently given away these days, you can give your kids or grandkids a visual display of the magnet's field and let them play with it without caring if you damage the TV.

The only time I've ever seen alarms go off and signals blocked was when we were using ECM equipment in S. Armagh....doubt that's the case though here.

CX.

a reply to: Macenroe82

Don't even know where to begin with your post... why would you even add anything if you literally have nothing to even add. You really believe that a little bit of seismic activity literally 1000km's away in b.c. would effect a tiny area the size of a parking lot, are you kidding me right now?

What makes you think many things work like tube t.v's anymore????? That's like ancient technology now. We have flat screens that aren't effected by magnets.

There's clearly something wrong with a poweline probably arcing or shorting out. Creating an electro magnetic interference beneath the parking lot, they'd have to dig it up to find it, maybe a mole chewed through it.

What about these new aerials. you know 4G, 5G or whatever number the new G is?

There's a terrestrial microwave link that runs from Calgary to Edmonton, directly over the town of Carstairs.

I wonder if there's been any new construction (billboard, tower, etc.), near the trouble spot. This can sometimes create a beam effect and direct concentrated RF into a small area. Even when frequency separation is good, frequency harmonics can wreak havoc on seemingly-unrelated RF devices.

That's all I got. Unless it's flying saucers, of course.

I'm quite amused that nobody has been HAARPing on this topic yet

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

originally posted by: schuyler
NOT A MYSTERY. In my area many times an aircraft carrier sails into port in Bremerton the key fobs fail to work. The car dealers are inundated with complaints. Finally someone remembers the Navy is responsible and calls them on it. They say they have no idea. The FCC gets involved and does an "investigation" for "unauthorized frequency use." The Navy says they have no idea, sorry. Then the fobs start working again.

The reason this happens is because some screw-up Chief forgot to turn off the electronic countermeasures so they are still spewing out interference on the low voltage frequencies. Had this happen to me at work. Drive home and the fob worked fine. Around here we treat the whole thing as a bit of a joke. Obviously no aircraft carriers where you are, but somebody has their countermeasures on. That's the issue.

STILL A MYSTERY. It could be electronic countermeasures based on your experience with the aircraft carrier. Why are electronic countermeasures being used in this small Alberta town? There is no military base near. If it is electronic countermeasures why have they been turned on for many weeks, even after the problem became known throughout this small Alberta town? If this is true, it is just as big a mystery or maybe even bigger.

NOT a mystery. Explained above. The HOW is explained. The WHY is what is unknown. Somebody is jamming those frequencies. It's intentional, though perhaps inadvertant. The only unknown is why they are doing it. (And of course, who is doing it.)

One report stated they found some spaghetti and meatballs in the parking lot.

I'm not saying it was this,

farm3.static.flickr.com...

but right now every possibility in on the table

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Probably one little kid with a jammer they bought on line but it could be this if things get bad Gone in 40 seconds! Moment keyless car thieves steal £60,000 Land Rover from owner's drive using '£80' relay device - despite keys being in signal-blocking pouch

www.dailymail.co.uk...

The air force is currently testing various drone interception programs that can mess with various signals. Here I don't think it messed with fobs, but we had a lot of trouble with phone signal and wifi for a few days. Probably part of the same tests.

originally posted by: dubiousatworst
Or it could be a simple spark gap that formed from some loose electrical wire connections. I could see it being something like the wire in a light post in the parking lot causing it. Enough energy to block the low range of keyfobs, not enough energy to block out cellphones.

in my opinion something as simple as that seems more likely than malicious intent, as a "spark gap" sends out signals at all frequencies, but is of a low enough power that it isn't noticeable to higher power devices.

and a link to wikipedia on what a spark gap is when relating to RF
en.wikipedia.org...

sometimes it is the simplest things that are the root cause of problems due to unforeseen failure modes. Im wracking my brain for the name of the theory's name. Something about complex mechanical actions only being able to undo themselves but not re-do the process.

This sounds like a good explanation. It would explain why it is in such a limited area. The dollar store across the street does not have the same problems.

originally posted by: LordAhriman
The air force is currently testing various drone interception programs that can mess with various signals. Here I don't think it messed with fobs, but we had a lot of trouble with phone signal and wifi for a few days. Probably part of the same tests.

Do you live near this town. You would think the town would experience problems in other locations if it was a drone using countermeasures.

a reply to: TheShadow21


I mean is it possible that their is such a thing as a gadget like a car, getting overengineered?, where the car of the fifties or the sixties only had the quality control lacking? where the planes of that era were quite adequate for purpose. I had a 1958 1000cc Austin A30 It did fifty to the gallon, and if anything went wrong with it I could fix it in a weekend. Compare that to the modern car where I cant touch the thing without paying an arm and a leg for computer diagnostic tools. if a car wont let you in or drives itself is it really a car anymore, it sounds more like a pain in the ass.If their is an EMP the car is toast a hunk of metal with roasted chips. A place like India who bought all the tooling for the old Austin cars and makes new 1958 Oxfords and Royal Enfielld Motorbikes would still keep going.

a reply to: SJE98

Looks tall but from my experiences, its 69 feet tall. anything over that (70') and it requires an FAA paperwork/permits to climb. Also, it appears to be a private radio antenna, probably for the rail/power utility that owns the property... Since everything on that tower was tested/swept, for signal propagation, I would have to say this is not the signals you are looking for.

The mystery itself has been solved:

After investigation it was determined that there was faulty consumer electronic equipment stuck in transmit mode in the area, which was causing the interference.

A spokesperson with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada had more details.

"In this case, it was determined that it was a remote car starter. It has since been deactivated and the interference has stopped," Hans Parmar said, in an emailed response to CBC News late Friday.

Store management added:

"We want to communicate that this was not the result of any intentional criminal activity, or any other activity that was speculated."

They also indicated that the offending "consumer device" was not located on the store's property, but was located nearby.

Seems to me to be a pretty piss-poor design in either this remote car starter, or the affected vehicles, or both.

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley
Impressive battery in that thing if it's been transmitting the whole time?