
Something mysterious is blocking vehicle key fobs in a small Alberta town - rkagerer
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carstairs-westview-co-op-grocery-car-key-fob-1.4999558
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rkagerer
How would you isolate something like this? They already tried powering off the
whole store.

Full spectrum analyzer?

PKE Meter?

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Speculation on Facebook:
[https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=517845548283931&st...](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=517845548283931&story_fbid=2092793167455820)

Potentially similar incident last year in New Zealand?
[https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106902631/dozens-locked-
out...](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106902631/dozens-locked-out-of-car-
in-invercargill-cbd-because-radio-equipment-blocked-car-remotes)

~~~
MarkSummer
> How would you isolate something like this?

On Navy ships you have a slew of EM radiating emitters, not only from your own
ship, but also from other ships that may be close by. For that reason, a lot
of time and effort is spent EM-hardening equipment and cables from being
susceptible to EMI and also ensuring radiating emitters don't exceed spectrum
and intensity limits - whether they're intended to radiate (e.g. antennas,
radars, range finders, etc.) or not (e.g. generators, motor controllers,
etc.).

Mil-std-461 (downloadable here (1)) tells you how to test
equipment/environments to ensure EM radiated emissions and equipment
susceptibility are within standard/tolerable limits. If problems arise on a
ship, there is shipboard testing that can be used to pinpoint the culprit and
then you can mitigate (e.g. ferrite beads, shielding, proper grounding per
Mil-std-1310, removing cable loops, etc.).

Sounds like these folks could use some good old fashioned EMI testing.

1\.
[https://quicksearch.dla.mil/qaSearch.aspx](https://quicksearch.dla.mil/qaSearch.aspx)

