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Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 102 posts

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#3
It'll be someone using a 'jam, listen, and replay' device to unlock and start keyless cars so they can drive them to a port and steal them.

Pretty much every week a car is stolen this way from my street. I now always take the engine management fuse out of the fusebox when parking my car so at least the car can't start when a thief pulls this... They tried anyway though!

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#5
There is nothing 'mysterious' about this, this is just how radios work. Neither does it have to be malicious.

Most car key fobs work in the 433MHz range, if there is something in the area transmitting at said frequency, it will cause the relatively weak signals from keys fobs to be blocked. This it why we have electromechanical compatibility (EMC) certification for any electrical devices being sold.

With the market being flood with cheap electronics from foreign manufacturers who do not care about getting certified, a single misbehaving weather station, 'smart' door bell, or baby monitor can cause disruptions to other wireless devices.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#7
post #4

It's odd that no one has analyzed the 433 MHz band to find out what is interfering with all these signals. It's most likely to be a bit of misbehaving equipment permanently on a channel.

The equipment should've gone through EMC so it might just be the sheer volume rather than one or two offenders.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#8

It'll be someone using a 'jam, listen, and replay' device to unlock and start keyless cars so they can drive them to a port and steal them. Pretty much every week a car is stolen this way from my street. I now always take the engine management fuse out of the fusebox when parking my car so at least the car can't start when a thief pulls this... They tried anyway though!

Where do you live that a car gets stolen from your street every week?

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#9
post #4

It's odd that no one has analyzed the 433 MHz band to find out what is interfering with all these signals. It's most likely to be a bit of misbehaving equipment permanently on a channel.

Presumably they've given Ofcom a call and they'll go look whenever they get around to it, but some noise on ISM is probably not treated as an emergency.

Re: Drivers locked out of their cars at Royston Tesco

#10

It'll be someone using a 'jam, listen, and replay' device to unlock and start keyless cars so they can drive them to a port and steal them. Pretty much every week a car is stolen this way from my street. I now always take the engine management fuse out of the fusebox when parking my car so at least the car can't start when a thief pulls this... They tried anyway though!

Curious as to how such a device would recover the original signal while it’s broadcasting a stronger signal to jam the frequency.

Also, if you don’t mind, which city/country are you in? It seems insane that this is a regular problem happening in the same location and law enforcement doesn’t catch on.

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