Local Garage Door Mysteries Solved: It’s a Matter of National Security

Your garage door opener is a matter of national security.

A new communications system being tested by the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station has been interfering with garage door openers as far away as Belmont Shore, Huntington Harbor and Westminster. The system, which allows the military to communicate directly with police and fire agencies during emergencies, operates on similar frequencies as many garage door openers. The testing has been going on for six weeks, and residents who made the connection between their persnickety openers and the nearby base have called to complain, said Gregg Smith, spokesman for the weapons station.

However, once the testing is completed, the new system will become permanent, and, as it turns out, national security trumps garage door opener reliability. Over time, all Department of Defense bases will adopt the new communications system, a move sure to send garage doors around the nation fluttering or stalling, as the case may be.

“For the longest time, the Navy had compartmentalized its communications systems. In the event of some crisis situation where the phone lines are down, it would be really hard for the Navy to coordinate disaster relief or crisis responses,” said Smith. “(The new system) is really much more advanced then what we had.”

There is little that residents can do ahead of time to prevent the interference. According to the military, most garage door openers have been allowed to operate on an unlicensed basis since World War II, using frequencies reserved for the federal government—namely 380-399.9-megahertz frequencies. The Enterprise Land Mobile Radio being tested in Seal Beach can interfere with those frequencies, causing garage door openers to fail entirely or function at reduced distances.

“It’s possible that we could be affecting a number of Seal Beach homes,” Smith added.

The first residents to notice the problem were clustered in Long Beach’s Island Village community off 2nd Street near Studebaker Road, said Smith. A few weeks later, about five residents in Huntington Harbor and Westminster called the Navy to complain.

“For security reasons, the Department of Defense cannot make information broadly available in advance as to the deployment of the new mobile radio systems,” officials with the Federal Communications Commission said in a written release. “Individual base commanders may make some information available to their local communities when appropriate.”

The new system is unlikely to affect most residents, but people who have Genie garage door openers seem to be experiencing the brunt of disruptions, said Smith.

There is hope for residents who suspect their garage door openers have fallen victim to the needs of national security. They can call their garage door opener manufacturer to buy replacement transmitters and receivers that operate on frequency bands not used by the ELMR system.