Over 5 years ago, Wireless Waffle reported on the fact that a UK radio ham repeater was forced off air to stop interference to licence-exempt 'wireless car unlocking keys' (and no excuses are necessary for re-using the rather fetching graphic one again). In this instance, because radio amateurs are secondary users of the band, and often regarded as second class citizens by regulatory authorities, it was the hams that had to find a solution. The fact that the value of the spectrum used by radio hams is generally rather large, yet they pay little or no licence fees, no doubt increases regulatory lethargy when it comes to lending a hand to deal with these kind of problems.

In the USA, however, the same situation has occurred, but instead of it being radio hams that caused the problem, it was the US military. And instead of it being wireless car keys being interfered with, it was wireless garage door openers. It seems that residents of Savannah (Georgia) have found their wireless garage door openers have stopped operating. The problem is caused by radio base stations at nearby military facilities which have begun operating in the frequency range 380 to 399.9 MHz, which has hitherto been a common band for wireless garage openers.

But unlike in the UK, the US military have stood their ground and said that it's tough luck for anyone who is affected as the spectrum is rightfully theirs. According to US Government Accountability Office report GAO-06-172R:

To address homeland defense needs and comply with government direction that agencies use the electromagnetic spectrum more efficiently, the Department of Defense (DOD) is deploying new Land Mobile Radios to military installations across the country. The new Land Mobile Radios operate in the same frequency range (380 to 399.9 MHz) as many unlicensed low-powered garage door openers, which have operated in this range for years. While DOD has been the authorized user of this spectrum range for several decades, their use of Land Mobile Radios between 380 and 399.9 MHz is relatively new. With DOD's deployment of the new radios and increased use of the 380-399.9 MHz range of spectrum, some users of garage door openers have experienced varying levels of inoperability that has been attributed to interference caused by the new radios. Nevertheless, because garage door openers operate as unlicensed devices, they must accept any interference from authorized spectrum users.

Yay! A big thumbs up for common sense, or at least from a spectrum management perspective that's what it is. But most legal cases use the 'reasonable person' principal. This basically asks the question, 'What would a reasonable person regard as the correct solution?' So... Is it reasonable that the military should be able to use radio spectrum that is rightfully theirs to defend the country, or is it more important to allow people to be able to open their garage doors without getting out of their cars? In this case, the reasonable person (even if that person happened to be the owner of a wireless garage door opener) would probably cede that the military boys have a point.

Now ask the same question for radio hams... Is it reasonable that radio hams should be able to use radio spectrum that is rightfully theirs to talk about radio stuff, or is it more important to allow people to be able to unlock their cars without putting their key into them? The answer in this case is less clear. The reason for this is probably to do with the description of who is using the spectrum for what.

Most people would agree that 'defending the country' was of high value compared to general laziness in door opening practises. But 'talking about radio stuff', well that's a different case altogether. Of course radio hams do use their frequencies for emergency communications and organisations such as Raynet would no doubt argue that use of radio ham frequencies is not about 'talking about radio stuff' but is more about providing a 'national voluntary communications service provided for the community'. If every radio ham was a member of an organisation such as Raynet then perhaps this would hold some water, but listen to your local radio ham repeater (you can check out the GB7OK and GB3OK repeaters online). I'd call that 'talking about radio stuff', wouldn't you?

For a bit of fun, below is a poll. Which of the uses of the spectrum do you value most highly? Just select the ones that you think are the most valuable and click 'submit' and the results so far will be displayed to you.