Re: garage remote jamming

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Bill Kearney" <wkearney-99@hot-mail-com> wrote in message
news:2b6dncvjf_D3qnXYnZ2dnUVZ_vOlnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<stuff snipped>

> And meanwhile it's nothing but unsubstantiated FUD claiming it's
"possible".
> Shit, ANYTHING is possible.  You want proof it can't be interferred with,
> well, show me one that has suffered from interference.  Otherwise you're
> just spewing "chicken little" style nonsense.  Meanwhile PLC continues to
be
> fraught with perils, often not within it's realm of control, that will
> further hamper it's uptake into the residential market.

This discussion didn't occur ex nihilo.  It was a response to similar RF
transmitters, apparently operating on the same frequencies as RA, being shut
down by recent military tests.  If it did come out of nowhere, you'd be
right, it's just FUD. But it didn't come out of nowhere.  There have been
persistent, credible, nationwide reports of RF jamming of very similar
equipment by military signals.  Signals that obviously weren't being
transmitted as strongly as they are now when RA was designed.

The question of RadioRA's resistance to a jamming signal is perfectly
germane in light of the very recent experience of 100's and maybe 1,000's of
garage door owners.  As I've noted before, there are probably so few RA
users *nationwide* that finding any that have had a problem is not going to
be easy.  But that doesn't mean that they don't exist.  Nor does it mean
that system is designed to reject such interference.  In fact, it's becoming
more and more clear that it can't, just on technical, and not anecdotal
evidence.  Why would they have a replacement frequency in the wings, as Marc
suggested, if they were immune to interference, as you suggest, or if they
used a spread spectrum design?

> In the context of this thread I'm merely less than sympathetic to the
> "problem" of the garage door openers being interfered with because the
> vendors have known about this for YEARS.

If you really wanted to convince me, a testimonial from an RA user in one of
the known affected areas would be nice.  A thousand units operating happily
away in the absence of interference isn't any proof.  There are tens of
millions of garage door openers operating normally.  Despite those millions,
the ones near Elgin, AFB and Quantico (so far) don't work.

We haven't had any personal reports from any of the affected 100's or
1,000's of garage door owners.  So why on earth would you expect to hear
about Lutron RA problems from a much, much smaller set of users?  And yet,
without any members *personally* reporting the problem here in CHA, we know
it exists.  A similar Lutron problem could just as readily exist and from
the technical discussion so far, appears TO exist.

What's the worst case scenario?  Probably that you have to pull all your
gear and return it for a re-fit. Not the end of the world, but a pain.  I
believe people considering LutronRA living next to military bases should be
alerted to any potential problems.  They also should find out what Lutron
will do for them if they need to switch to a new frequency.  That doesn't
seem like FUD to me as much as getting the facts straight for someone that
might be thinking of buying Lutron.  Let's see, what's the inverse of FUD?
HCS: Happiness, certainty and surety.

Or is there something wrong with potential Lutron RA purchasers knowing
whether the system is immune to interference already plaguing some home
control RF users?  Is there anything wrong with knowing what Lutron will do
for their customers should a jamming transmitter fire up in their
neighborhood, either?

--
Bobby G.