Jamming Car Keyless Entry Systems

[FSTargetDrone]

I was just reading the thread here in SLAM about cell phone jamming on aircraft and it reminded me of how, sometimes, when I park our car in specific locations, more often than not, the keyless entry remote doesn't work.

Has anyone else here ever noticed anything like this?

I can park the car in one location and the keyless entry works fine, but parking the car in another specific location results in apparent jamming or interference. For example, there are 2 large supermarkets nearby to where we live, one on each side of a nearby highway. Parking in the lot of one supermarket, I never have any trouble with the keyless entry. But parking in the other supermarket's lot, more often than not, the keyless entry doesn't work.

It's probably not an issue of a defective keyless entry remote, because we have 2 of them and they both do not work at the same time, or both do work at the same time. The batteries have been replaced, so that isn't an issue either.

It's gotten to be such a regular occurrence that we remind each other to physically get the door key ready for the trunk or driver's side door (none of the other 3 doors has a external keylock) when we are in the parking lot where the interference usually occurs.

I've noticed this in other areas too. We'll park somewhere we normally visit (on the street), and more often than not, the keyless entry doesn't work in that general vicinity.

I assume something nearby those specific locations is transmitting a radio signal on the same frequency used by the car's remote locking system, but whatever it may be, I have no idea.

[Lisa]

could be the alarm system of the store. they often set off my friend's radar detector.

[Vain]

I would be completely boned if this happened to me. Trying to open the door with the physical key just sets off the alarm. Apparently this is a 'feature'.

[Stile]

When I lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa,(88-89) my dad's boss would regularly drive his new Cadillac to one of the area stores that was butted up against one of the runways for Strategic Air Command. Every time he would park and couldn't get his car to turn on again: no power at all. The Air Traffic Control RADAR would blow out the CPU on his electrical system.
Needless to say, he stopped going visiting that store.

The alarm on my car seems to be really finicky with the locations I visit. I've found that a supermarket or a drive-thru will normally jam it. Drive-thrus normally have the power on their transmitters cranked so high, I wonder if you could fry an egg on one of those fanny pack/battery pack/transmitters the attendants use.