Radio Control Upgrade Kits

Between now and 2008, the military is supplying a new radio system to roughly 125 bases that uses the same frequency as the one relied upon by more than 90 percent of the remotely operated openers, Pentagon and industry officials say.

The military radio signal is sometimes so strong that it overpowers the opener’s signal, preventing the door from opening. Or it can also vastly reduce the opener’s range, forcing the user to walk close to the garage before it will open.

Unless another solution is reached, the consumer will either have to live with the inconvenience or pay to fix the problem.

Now, this is NOT going to be a big problem, our industry has been aware of this for months now, furthermore, upgrade kits are and have always been available to change the radio frequency that your machine uses. It is correct that the current standard for residential garage door openers is 390 MHz frequency, but again, radio control kits that are easily installed on any garage opener can change your frequency to a lower band such as 310MHz, 315MHz, 318MHz and more. Such kits are very affordable and start at $19.99; they usually include a remote and a receiver (some kits available with up to 3 remotes), the receiver is attached externally via the use of 3 terminals on the back of the garage door openers, no need to call an installer for that, the only tool required is a screw driver. No need to open the machine; all garage door openers made in the past 20 years have an internal 24 volt transformer that will power the external receiver so no extra wiring is needed.
Other conversion kits have a built-in 24 volt transformer and have 2 wires that can be spliced directly into the wall button wiring or connected on the machine where the wall button wires connect to the machine. Since the voltage for these receivers is so low, there is no danger of burning out the machine’s circuit board, motor, or receiver if you make a mistake connecting it.