Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 9:50 a.m.
Nellis Air Force Base is not one of 125 bases nationwide getting a new radio system that uses frequencies that could inconvenience residents by jamming nearby garage-door openers, Capt. Maureen Schumann, a Nellis spokeswoman, said this morning.
Nellis and other Air Combat Command bases have no land mobile radio systems operating in the 390-megahertz range, and there are no plans to add such radios in the future, Schumann said.
Between now and 2008, the military is supplying the new radio system that operates at the same frequency as about 90 percent of garage-door openers to roughly 125 bases, according to an Associated Press story.
Tests of the new system at the Navy Depot in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., have resulted in some instances where the military signal interferes with garage-door openers near the base stopping the garage doors from opening. Residents have sometimes had to get within a few feet from their garage doors in order to get them to open with the push of the buttons on their remotes.
Along with Elgin, Hurlburt Air Force Base, also in Florida will also be using the new radios, according to Air Combat Command.
Don Harrison, owner of Las Vegas-based garage-opener provider Harrison Door Co., said that in areas where the new frequency will be used, the fix for homeowners will probably cost about $65, not including labor charges.
The military's new system operates at between 380 and 400 megahertz, and most garage-door openers run at 390 megahertz. There are also openers that operate at 315 megahertz that wouldn't be impacted.
The military has owned the 390 megahertz frequency since 1950, but U.S. law allows low-power electronic devices to operate on military frequencies if they don't cause interference. The military has not used the frequency much in the past, and garage-door openers don't operate with enough power to disturb military usage of the frequency.
Government and industry officials have estimated that some garage doors could be effected anywhere between 10 and 50 miles around a base where the frequency is used.
The new radios are part of an $800 million project to use the military's airwaves more efficiently, defense officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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