Ship's Radar, a word of warning!!
Discussion
I don't know if this has been posted before, I did a quick search but found nothing, so here is a word of warning for all you intrepid travellers intending to use a cross channel ferry.
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down
said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry 
I had to break in, using the prescribed method
alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.
I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down
said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry I had to break in, using the prescribed method
alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
We had this when the Navy were doing basin trials of radar installations.
Could always feel my nuts glowing!
They denied it of course as they were not supposed to do it whilst in dock.
Always locked my car manually, but some were less fortunate as they were affected by various electronic maladies
Could always feel my nuts glowing!
They denied it of course as they were not supposed to do it whilst in dock.
Always locked my car manually, but some were less fortunate as they were affected by various electronic maladies
[quote=chris&chris]I don't know if this has been posted before, I did a quick search but found nothing, so here is a word of warning for all you intrepid travellers intending to use a cross channel ferry.
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry
I had to break in, using the prescribed method alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.
I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
[/quote]
Sounds a bit odd as I would imagine this would happen to loads of cars - the alarm is not really specific to a TVR?
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down
said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry I had to break in, using the prescribed method
alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
[/quote]
Sounds a bit odd as I would imagine this would happen to loads of cars - the alarm is not really specific to a TVR?
morebeanz said:
Some of us had trouble on the Cerbergring trip on the ferry. We found the old "placing the fob against your skull" trick seemed to boost the signal enough to work...
Unless of course its the plasctic body. it could be the metal skin reflects all or some of the radar before it gets through to effect the electronics?Edited by griffsmith on Friday 29th June 08:40
crackedfinger said:
[quote=chris&chris]I don'
Sounds a bit odd as I would imagine this would happen to loads of cars - the alarm is not really specific to a TVR?
I wasn't suggesting it was specific to TVR, I'm quoting what was said to me by a member of the crew, obviously all immobilizers opperate on different frequencies.Sounds a bit odd as I would imagine this would happen to loads of cars - the alarm is not really specific to a TVR?
As soon as I was out of range of whatever the interference was, everything was fine....exactly as had been said by the crew member.
I'm sure this has happened to other people........I thought the information might be useful.
My dad used to have a Montego (!) & when at a certain area within Farnborough airport the whole car shut down whilst driving........radar interference.
There was also a case when the air force were testing a fighter.....when it's radar was activated it also armed & started discharging it's guns....live ammo I believe
Radar is a very powerful tool & in close proximity to other electrical equipment can cause all sorts of strange things to happen
Chris
I parked under an electricity pylon once (in a golf not the tvr) Couldnt for the life of me get the imobiliser to switch off, AA guy that attended knew exactly what to do, towed me a mile down the road and all was well again! Said it was a common problem with that pylon apparently!?!?!?!?
griffsmith said:
morebeanz said:
Some of us had trouble on the Cerbergring trip on the ferry. We found the old "placing the fob against your skull" trick seemed to boost the signal enough to work...
Unless of course its the plasctic body. it could be the metal skin reflects all or some of the radar before it gets through to effect the electronics?Edited by griffsmith on Friday 29th June 08:40
All these radio operated devices suffer from immunity to BIG phenomena like radar etc. Just how big the problem is depends on the screening etc of the device and its wiring. In a 'normal' car the bodywork does a lot of the screening.
Most car alarms do operate on very similar frequencies but design, layout and wiring differences mean that the resulting immunity can be very different.
[quote=chris&chris]I don't know if this has been posted before, I did a quick search but found nothing, so here is a word of warning for all you intrepid travellers intending to use a cross channel ferry.
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry
I had to break in, using the prescribed method alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.
I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
[/quote]
My old Griff would lock up when parked next to NATO bases.
They definately were using some kit which blocked the old, original Griff immobiliser.
We had a brief visit to France last week. Boarded the ferry ok from Dover, went in with the lorries, didn't want to risk the ramps. All ok but when I went to unlock the car (Tuscan).......nothing, no response from the key fob. We were right at the front in the middle & most of the lorries had a job squeezing past.
A crew member from the bridge came down & after I explained what the problem was....couldn't get in the car, he suggested that the ship's radar might have interfered with the immobilizer & shut it down
said it had happened before to 'one of those'. Apparently the owner had it fork lifted off the ferry I had to break in, using the prescribed method
alarm going full blast, put the immobilizer fob into the slot, drove about 400yds, stopped the car, unlocked it from the inside, locked & unlocked it again just to make sure, put the bits back together & off we went.I'll leave you to guess what we did on the way back!!
Had a great time in France........the Tuscan was...well, you know
Perhaps this should be posted in the Tuscan forum as well
[/quote]
My old Griff would lock up when parked next to NATO bases.
They definately were using some kit which blocked the old, original Griff immobiliser.
Interesting story, I'd never thought of having a problem on ferries. As an Air Surveillance Officer in the RAF, I've heard plenty stories involving our radars. If you get into the wrong place, they'll certainly do some strange things: lock cars, start windscreen wipers/alarms etc.
What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
StTuscan said:
Interesting story, I'd never thought of having a problem on ferries. As an Air Surveillance Officer in the RAF, I've heard plenty stories involving our radars. If you get into the wrong place, they'll certainly do some strange things: lock cars, start windscreen wipers/alarms etc.
What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
Yes, but the sort of kit that you're working with is a little bit different to a relatively low powered E/F or I band navigational radar. The beam pattern is such that it would only be sidelobes anyway that might even be angled down towards the car deck and in any case they'd have to get through several laters of metal deck and superstructure before getting to the cars. There's an awful lot more electro magnetic interference on board a ship that is much closer to the car decks. I would suspect much more likely that it is HF radio that causes this.What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
Are we saying the problem affects the car, the fob, or both?
I don't know how rolling codes work. Obviously the alarm is a receiver but does the fob receive too?
I assume that its a lack of shielding to the alarm rather than the fob because most cars are metal and don't suffer this problem.
Could we add screening around the alarm unit, or would we need to screen the fob too?
How would we do that?
If I made something, how would I know it worked as best as possible without unnecessarily degrading the remote performance? Without a serious radar how would I test it?
The best solution would be for a fix to be developed by someone who knows what their doing.
As this seems a common problem there would be a market for it.
Could the problems be induction in the wiring? I know you can buy screened cable. It might be as simple as replacing some wiring with screened cable.
As a get-out-of-trouble. Would it do any good to put the fob as close to the alarm as possible and cover with metal? I'm thinking a sheet of aluminium foil.
Fester
I don't know how rolling codes work. Obviously the alarm is a receiver but does the fob receive too?
I assume that its a lack of shielding to the alarm rather than the fob because most cars are metal and don't suffer this problem.
Could we add screening around the alarm unit, or would we need to screen the fob too?
How would we do that?
If I made something, how would I know it worked as best as possible without unnecessarily degrading the remote performance? Without a serious radar how would I test it?
The best solution would be for a fix to be developed by someone who knows what their doing.
As this seems a common problem there would be a market for it.
Could the problems be induction in the wiring? I know you can buy screened cable. It might be as simple as replacing some wiring with screened cable.
As a get-out-of-trouble. Would it do any good to put the fob as close to the alarm as possible and cover with metal? I'm thinking a sheet of aluminium foil.
Fester
TVRCC PR said:
StTuscan said:
Interesting story, I'd never thought of having a problem on ferries. As an Air Surveillance Officer in the RAF, I've heard plenty stories involving our radars. If you get into the wrong place, they'll certainly do some strange things: lock cars, start windscreen wipers/alarms etc.
What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
Yes, but the sort of kit that you're working with is a little bit different to a relatively low powered E/F or I band navigational radar. The beam pattern is such that it would only be sidelobes anyway that might even be angled down towards the car deck and in any case they'd have to get through several laters of metal deck and superstructure before getting to the cars. There's an awful lot more electro magnetic interference on board a ship that is much closer to the car decks. I would suspect much more likely that it is HF radio that causes this.What I will say is if you do get too close, don't expect much y chromosome action when having kids, most of ours operators end up with girls only!!
ours work similar bands, but yes pumping out much more I'm sure. Without going back into my radar theory files 
I'm can't offer up a solution but I will investigate, see if I come up with some solutions 
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