Navy blamed for garage door problems

MONTVILLE, Conn., July 23 (UPI) -- A spokesman for a Connecticut Naval base said a communication system may be behind malfunctioning garage doors in nearby neighborhoods.

Sondra Tuchman, who said her garage door opener recently stopped working consistently, said she spoke with about 50 neighbors in Montville and they all had similar complaints about their garage doors, The Day of New London, Conn., reported Monday.

Tuchman said a salesman for Overhead Door Company told her similar complaints had been received from customers in Groton, New London, Waterford, Montville and Gales Ferry. He said the company investigated and found the equipment was not defective.

Chris Zendan, a spokesman for the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, said a radio communications system installed in July 2011 may be to blame for the garage door problems. He said radio frequencies between 380 and 399.9 megahertz are reserved for the Department of Defense, but some garage door openers legally operate on low power at the same frequencies.

"In response to the increased needs of homeland security, the Department of Defense now must make more use of these frequencies to deploy new mobile radio systems on and around certain military bases," the Federal Communications Commission said in a public notice. "Some consumers near these bases may experience interference to their garage door openers that can reduce operating range or cause the remote control to cease functioning."

Officials said they can't alter the system to fix the problem and a manager at Overhead Door Company said the firm is not responsible for fixing the problem because "it all has to do with homeland security."

Tuchman said the company told her it would cost about $300 to change the frequency of her door opener.