The invasion of Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor) by ships, aircraft and personnel for RIMPAC exercises, the largest multinational war exercises in the world, may be causing a mysterious epidemic of dysfunctional remote garage door openers in Honolulu. The Honolulu Star Advertiser writes:
Mary Abe came home from a workout and shopping, pushed the button on her garage door remote and … nothing.
She then checked the remote on a second car, and still nothing. Neither remote control would operate the garage door at her Aiea home in Royal Summit, she said.
“That’s why we called the repair people, and the repairman said, ‘I’ve had so many calls,'” Abe said. “He said that there’s nothing they could do because there was some type of interference. He thought it might be (Rim of the Pacific war games), because he started getting calls on Saturday.”
This is a recurring problem whenever significant numbers of military ships are in port. Apparently, the Navy uses 315 megahertz, the same frequency as many garage door openers. The spike in military communications and radar activity during exercises seems to be jamming the remote devices.
But the Navy spokesperson denies responsibility:
“I don’t think we can pinpoint what’s causing what’s going on with the garage door openers, because there’s a lot of electromagnetic activity. It’s not just by the Navy,” said Agnes Tauyan, a spokeswoman for Navy Region Hawaii.
Being subjected to electromagnetic contamination without your knowledge or consent, one of the many joys of being under military occupation.
Not just garage door openers, apparently. My Camry remote controls mysteriously also would not work for a few days. I got new batteries and everything. A few days ago, lo and behold, they worked! Good thing I didn’t take it in for repairs. In past years I’ve also had our ceiling fan remote controls mysteriously quit working. We live on Aiea Heights, and can see the AZ Memorial and the big carriers (recently the Reagan) when they’re in port form our driveway.