[TenTec] BPL, RFI & FCC

[Ron Notarius]

Oh, I can't WAIT until all these garage door opener owners get told this
one!

Most GDO owners have no idea what frequency(s) their system(s) run on.
(Having spent the last 6 months in the Hardware department at the local Home
Depot, trust me on this... I got to deal with a lot of people looking for
replacements).  Many older systems run around 390 MHz.  I don't know offhand
the current frequency(s), they may be the same or close or not so close.

But here's the thing:  How many of these owners are going to be able to
"change" their frequency?  None, zip, zero, nada.  Nope, they're going to
march right back to the store where they bought them and/or call and scream
at the manufacturer to "fix" the problem.  Now THIS is going to be an
"interesting" warranty problem!  On the one hand, the units no longer work
due to QRM.  On the other hand, the units themselves work fine when there's
no QRM, so there may not be a warranty issue per se.

Very interesting!

Let's just hope some of this filters up to the FCC.  And if so, that they
pay attention.

Nah.

73, ron wn3vaw

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cliff KD4GT" <kd4gt at bellsouth.net>
To: <tentec at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 10:50 AM
Subject: [TenTec] BPL, RFI & FCC


> Sometimes it takes a while before the actions of the FCC really come to
> light.
>
> An AP news story of 05/20/04 reports that a new Air Force radio system by
> Motorola is being tested at Elgin AFB in Florida. Homeowners in the
> surrounding area are reporting their garage door openers are no longer
> functioning. An FCC spokesperson said that 'IF' the Air Force is operating
> within its assigned frequencies then the users of the garage door openers
> will have to change theirs.
>
> Hmmm ... the FCC allowed these Part 15 devices to be produced even though
> they operate around the 435~436 MHz area. We hams have 420-440MHz on a
> 'secondary' basis with the US federal government (military) being the
> primary user. The FCC is also willing to let the RFID Tag folks crank up
the
> power well beyond the Part 15 limits in this same area.
>
> How long is it going to be before the BPL or RFID starts interfering with
> critical communications and someone dies? Or maybe the FCC will just find
a
> solution of dropping all those nifty new gizmos into the ham bands? After
> all, we are just 'amateurs' and don't really provide any beneficial return
> for the bandwidth given to us.
>
> Watching to see how this conflict between the Part 15 garage door openers
> and the US military plays out will, at the very least, be interesting.
>
> 73 de KD4GT
>
>
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