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Driver's phone mast misery
by Stephanie Bateman MOBILE phone and police masts are inconveniencing motorists by interfering with car locking and immobilising systems.
And one Courier reader has experienced this problem on the outskirts of Goole involving her Subaru Impreza.
Mrs Charlotte Snape of Newclose Lane discovered her remote access does not work within hundreds of yards of a mast on the Rawcliffe Road Industrial Estate.
She said: "When it first happened I just thought the battery had worn out so got new ones.
"I had to have the car towed away and as soon as we got past Focus on Rawcliffe Road my husband tried the remote again and it worked."
A few days later exactly the same thing happened in the same spot.
"With this mast we wondered if it was something to do with the radiation they omit, although I always thought they weren't that dangerous.
"It's a bit concerning, and an inconvenience," she added.
An RAC spokesman said: "Of the 2.6 million breakdowns attended to by RAC patrols in the last 12 months more than 70,000 were associated with vehicle security systems.
"Though we are aware that motorists have experienced radio frequency interference (RAC is aware of a number of locations including military bases, hospital car parks, shopping centre car parks and dock sides where this phenomena occurs) due to the way the breakdown faults data is captured, I'm afraid it is impossible to say how many of these were the result of this phenomena."
Subaru Impreza Drivers Club's John Stewart advised trying the following if key fobs are affected:
* Open the car by using the key in the lock (the alarm will go off), once inside with the door closed, try the key fob again as the bodywork shields some of the signal from the mast;
* The alarm system has a manual over-ride which requires knowledge of the pin number. Once inside the car, you can switch off the alarm and disable the immobiliser by entering the correct pin number. If owners don't know their pin number then they should contact their local Subaru dealer. Entering the incorrect pin three times will disable the car completely, requiring it to be recovered to a Subaru dealer;
* Open the car with the key (alarm will go off). Put the key in the ignition and release the steering lock. Get the car pushed a few hundred metres from where it is parked, or behind a building which will shield the car from the mast signal. The car will then hopefully operate as normal.
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Weather for Goole
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
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