Mystery signal leaves suburb in a jam
A signal-jamming problem has left thousands of residents in the Blairgowrie, Randburg, area battling to work the remote control devices that operate their gates, garage doors, car alarms and security systems.
Residents remain mystified about the cause of the problem, which began on Tuesday and continued to "cause pandemonium" in the evening.
Community leader Bev Boswell, of Blairgowrie Residents Against Crime (Brac), said: "We have no idea what's causing this. We have people checking up, and it seems there could be a number of reasons for it.
"We started our investigations last night and had residents driving out to different points in the suburb to see where the problem is, and it appears to be scattered all over."
Boswell said that according to reports from residents, the signal jam appears to affect remote controls for electric gates, garage doors, security systems, garden beams and cars.
One resident said it appeared as though a new system had started transmitting at about 433MHz, the unlicensed frequency used for remote devices.
"It should not be used for burst communications and should not be constantly transmitting," the resident said, suggesting an inquiry into any new transmitter targeting Blairgowrie, a suburb of well over 3 000 households.
Bozena Strzygon, owner of Appliance Electrical World in the Blairgowrie Plaza, said customers had flooded in wanting to replace remote control batteries.
"Yesterday I had over 100 people coming in. I have never replaced so many batteries, and this was in just half a day. I could not close for lunch at 1pm because more and more people were coming in. And this morning it is just the same," she said.
Curvy Street resident Martine Prinsloo said she had battled with her car remote. "I thought the battery was dead, so I got out my spare key, but that didn't work. Eventually, after pressing it about 10 times, it worked.
"I thought I was going to have to take my car in and get the alarm system checked, but then I arrived at my client in Braamfontein and the remote is working perfectly again," she said.
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) spokesperson Sekgoela Sekgoela said they had suspicions about what was causing the signal jam but would be able to confirm the source only after further inquiries.
Sekgoela said the interference was on a frequency reserved for industrial, scientific and medical use. It is exempt from licence requirements but still needs Icasa approval.
Sebastian Meyer, a control technical officer at Icasa, confirmed that a signal jam was affecting the entire Blairgowrie area but was unable to say what the cause could be.
"We have had reports of remote blasters that went faulty or problems with remote controls and that type of thing, but those have always been small and very localised, nothing like this," he said.
"All we know is that if it is so widespread, we are looking at a transmitter fault, some kind of communications transmitter."
Meyer said Icasa technicians were in the area on Tuesday to investigate.
Security company ADT said its control room for the Blairgowrie area had received no reports of security system problems and was unaware of any technical issues.
Blairgowrie resident Phil Botha said he had discovered that remote devices worked if they were placed close to the receiver. He had started his new Mercedes by placing the remote against the bonnet.
Boswell said she knew of some people replacing gate motors on Tuesday but said it had been impossible to alert the entire suburb as not everyone was signed up with Brac and so did not receive its e-mails.
Neither the police nor the local community policing forum were able to comment.
