For over a week, some residents of Kittery couldn't use their automatic garage door openers. And it was turning into a head scratcher.

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According to an article at seacoastonline.com, many Kittery residents suddenly found that their automatic garage door openers refused to work, even after changing the batteries.

The article told the story of a couple who experienced such a situation.

"For Don and Merry Craig of Kittery Point, their garage door remotes stopped working last Thursday including the programmed button on the rearview mirror of their Toyota Prius and two hand-held remotes. Only the hard-wired button in the garage worked. They live on the edge of the Piscataqua River with a clear shot of the shipyard.

A repairman from Overhead Door in Portsmouth replaced the units' circuit boards at $100 apiece. But that did not fix the problem, leaving the Craigs and the serviceman scratching their heads.

“Nobody knew what was going on,” Don Craig said. “The doors just stopped working.”

The Craig's weren't alone in this situation. The servivceman from Overhead Door recalled that the company had received at least eight calls with the same problem.

As it turns out, the reason for this weirdness turned out to be the Shipyard. On Thursday, the Shipyard released a statement pin-pointing the source of the problem. A new communications system.

The release said among other things that "the newly activated Enterprise Land Mobile Radio communications system may affect the remote operation of garage door openers". 

The statement also indicated that "most radio-controlled garage door opener systems operate on frequencies reserved for use by the Department of Defense or other federal government organizations".

In other words, it's up to you to change the frequency on your garage door openers, something that might set you back close to $85.

Just deduct that from your taxes. I'm sure the IRS will understand.

 

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