Was There An Eye In The Sky?

[Vaughan]

Perhaps I should have posted this in  "technical questions and answers". . . . 

On our property we have a sliding gate into the back yard, where we park and double gates into the front garden.  A couple of years ago I had these re-motorised, with  remote beepers that have two buttons, one for each of the gates.

On Monday morning, just before midday, I went out of the back gate down to the village, for some bread and the papers.  When I came back and parked the car, the gate wouldn't close.  I established that it still had current running to it and then tried the front gate, which was dead as well.  All 4 of the beepers didn't work, so they couldn't have run out of battery at the same time.

That afternoon I went to see the man who had installed the motors and he came over to have a look.  There was nothing at all wrong with the motors and we found that the beepers would work about a foot away, but no further.  Obviously something in the air was interfering with the signal from the beepers.  Was it the new fibre-optic broadband that they have been installing?  Was it the new radio mast on the fire station?  I jokingly said it was the U.S.Air Force and he said it was more likely the Chinese.  The next morning, lo and behold, everything was back to normal and the beepers worked from 50 yards away.

It was only yesterday evening that Susie and I realised that this had been the afternoon when the President of China flew into Paris for a state visit with Macron.  If there had been an attack of some sort on the President's aircraft, it would likely have come in across the Mediterranean.  So were there military aircraft up there, with pulse-doppler "look down" radar, to detect aircraft movements that didn't show up on air traffic control?  If so, their strength would probably have been enough to disrupt the signal from a beeper.

Whether or not you believe that there is a Divinity up there looking down on us all, it is more than probable that some-one else is!   

[dom]

Back in the 90s, I had a customer who was one of the UK's most accomplished female clay pigeon shooters. We supplied her with a high spec insurance approved car alarm system. Shortly after it was fitted, she started having issues with the remote control refusing to work, resulting in having to go through a complex override process before the car could be driven. We inspected and tested everything, but found it was 100% functional. It then became apparent that the remote only stopped working when she was shooting at Eriswell Lodge, just over the road from RAF Lakenheath. The only conclusion we could reach in the end was that some sort of radar or countermeasure the USAF were using was blocking the remote.

[Vaughan]

36 minutes ago, dom said:

The only conclusion we could reach in the end was that some sort of radar or countermeasure the USAF were using was blocking the remote.

Funny you should say that.

When I was truck driving, we had a lot of trouble when our Volvo trucks were passing RAF Mildenhall.  On some occasions the electronics in the truck failed altogether and they had to be towed away.

Maybe @NeilB  or @TheQ  have heard of this?

 

[MauriceMynah]

Vaughan,  are you suggesting that God is Chinese?

It might explain a lot, including what wonderful diesel heaters they make. 

[dom]

I suspect the most likely thing is drone countermeasures. If you watch some of the footage from Ukraine, it's apparent that one of the most dangerous weapons on earth these days is a $100 first person Chinese drone with a grenade.

[NeilB]

Just had a google and found this article which sounds like a similar issue - https://www.wired.com/2006/11/british-radar-d/

Not had any other experience of this, the GPS antennas we supply have specific installation instructions but are more concerned with VHF interference than radar.

I wouldn't be surprised if the military have some sort of system to block some wireless or radio waves to prevent remote detonation of bombs, people flying drones etc, etc

[oldgregg]

Last year I ran a Honda CR-V for three months over winter courtesy of our local dealer.

It was only a few months old and had the adaptive cruise control, which for the most part was pretty good. Apart from when you used it at night on the section of the NDR next to the airport.

As you approached the area by the tower / radar, the system would disengage and throw lots of warnings up on the dash. A mile down the road and it had decided all was good again. I noticed this a few times, and once on a different road where again we were passing an airport.

It seems that the airport radar was basically confusing the adaptive cruise system. I think newer systems use cameras and/or LIDAR to get around these problems.

[dom]

24 minutes ago, oldgregg said:

It seems that the airport radar was basically confusing the adaptive cruise system. I think newer systems use cameras and/or LIDAR to get around these problems.

My Honda's got City Traffic Brake Assist, which uses radar to brake automatically to prevent collisions, but only works below 20mph. I guess Honda were aware of the risk of interference and implemented the 20mph limit to avoid risk of high speed issues. The thought of it suddenly doing an emergency stop at 70mph or more is quite scary. I guess ABS would probably prevent complete loss of control, but you can bet other drivers behind wouldn't catch on quickly enough.

[grendel]

I once parked up and locked my car, when I came back, it would not unlock on the key fob, it would not start, the tow truck came and it still would not start, the driver tried all the tricks he knew- turning the key on and off many times to override the alarm disabling the car- in the end I was towed home- whereupon the car opened to the key fob, started and drove off the tow vehicle, all the tow driver could say was that I must have parked somewhere where some local security had disabled the car , so its not an unheard of phenomenon.

[dom]

49 minutes ago, grendel said:

I once parked up and locked my car, when I came back, it would not unlock on the key fob, it would not start, the tow truck came and it still would not start, the driver tried all the tricks he knew- turning the key on and off many times to override the alarm disabling the car- in the end I was towed home- whereupon the car opened to the key fob, started and drove off the tow vehicle, all the tow driver could say was that I must have parked somewhere where some local security had disabled the car , so its not an unheard of phenomenon.

Most modern alarms use "rolling codes" which change every time the remote is used. To try and overcome them, criminals use scanners which send out random codes one after another in the hope of hitting the right one. Manufacturers have reacted to this risk by looking for multiple random codes, then locking the system out for a while when they detect them. With each successive triggering of the system, they lock the remote out for increasingly longer intervals.

That wasn't relevant in Vaughan's case, as he said the remotes worked at very short range, but it's very possible that's what you experienced - either from someone actually attempting to scan your or another nearby vehicle, or by random RFI which appeared similar in nature to random remote codes. Microwave ovens tend to be a common source of the latter.

[Happy]

Some years ago the wife had a Jeep.  She parked in Dover High Street did her shopping and when she got back to the car it was dead.  We had a quick look and towed it back to the garage where it then started without a problem.  Out of curiosity we went back to where she had been parked and it was next to one of those big green boxes used by Telecom.  Something in there had effected the cars immobiliser!  The only other time it happened was at our local recycling centre.  Same thing happened but we pushed it away from the plant and it was OK again.  Very odd. 

[TheQ]

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Funny you should say that.

When I was truck driving, we had a lot of trouble when our Volvo trucks were passing RAF Mildenhall.  On some occasions the electronics in the truck failed altogether and they had to be towed away.

Maybe @NeilB  or @TheQ  have heard of this?

 

The most likely problem is the radar on the airfield. Working properly, they are normally set to turn off the section of radar transmission that would radiate at ground level . They had a problem with that at Trimmingham, the electronics that controlled it failed and they killed a few cars going past.

[TheQ]

Ha I see NeilB posted the Trimmingham problem in 2006..

 I note the photo in the article was the old Type 80 radar, that was only at Trimmingham from the late 1950s to 1964..

[ChrisB]

6 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Perhaps I should have posted this in  "technical questions and answers". . . . 

On our property we have a sliding gate into the back yard, where we park and double gates into the front garden.  A couple of years ago I had these re-motorised, with  remote beepers that have two buttons, one for each of the gates.

On Monday morning, just before midday, I went out of the back gate down to the village, for some bread and the papers.  When I came back and parked the car, the gate wouldn't close.  I established that it still had current running to it and then tried the front gate, which was dead as well.  All 4 of the beepers didn't work, so they couldn't have run out of battery at the same time.

That afternoon I went to see the man who had installed the motors and he came over to have a look.  There was nothing at all wrong with the motors and we found that the beepers would work about a foot away, but no further.  Obviously something in the air was interfering with the signal from the beepers.  Was it the new fibre-optic broadband that they have been installing?  Was it the new radio mast on the fire station?  I jokingly said it was the U.S.Air Force and he said it was more likely the Chinese.  The next morning, lo and behold, everything was back to normal and the beepers worked from 50 yards away.

It was only yesterday evening that Susie and I realised that this had been the afternoon when the President of China flew into Paris for a state visit with Macron.  If there had been an attack of some sort on the President's aircraft, it would likely have come in across the Mediterranean.  So were there military aircraft up there, with pulse-doppler "look down" radar, to detect aircraft movements that didn't show up on air traffic control?  If so, their strength would probably have been enough to disrupt the signal from a beeper.

Whether or not you believe that there is a Divinity up there looking down on us all, it is more than probable that some-one else is!   

He is or has been a lot closer to you. Macron took him to the French Pyrennes.

[ChrisB]

Here you go:-