This is probably very stupid, but an Email message is circulating "out there" which claims if you've locked yourself out of your remote door lock car with keys still in the ignition lock, and if you have a handy cell phone, a friend any distance away, also with a cell phone, can cause your car to be opened.

The so-called explanation goes on to say that both you and your friend must be in cell phone contact and have the respective cell phones very near the remote door lock of each of the cars, while the friend activates his remote door-opening device. This audio action then opens your door.

I say this is idiocy, as any remote door-opening device that I'm aware of operates with a set radio frequency which sends an electronic (not audio) signal to a receiver in the locking mechanism, and it is this that opens the door.

Since I'm broad-minded at least some of the time, and this is one of those times, I ask the question: Could there be any truth, or partial truth, to the above story? Do some remote door lock cars operate by audio signal?

Now I hasten to add that if any part of the above story is true, break-ins and thefts would be rampart. Still, the question is asked.

not true because i tried it and it didnt work

Doesn't work and that email has been out there for a while.

It will only work if you are standing next to the person you are calling and they are standing next to your car.

:p

Jim

Maybe if you got your OnStar # out of the car and then called it and learned how to communicate on the Class 2 bus..... Heck, you could probably start the car, set the stereo and turn on the AC then.....

actually it does work on some car/alarm/phone combinations on my nextel my wife's 03 civic witha a.m. clifford alarm it works ive tried it from about 10 miles away.

actually it does work on some car/alarm/phone combinations on my nextel my wife's 03 civic witha a.m. clifford alarm it works ive tried it from about 10 miles away.

What's an 'a.m.' clifford alarm?

As someone else explained, factory remotes as well as most remotes for aftermarket starters and alarms use radio waves to send signals to receivers in the car. The ranges on these little transmitters, due to the spectrum that they use and the amount of power the little watch batteries can provide, is typically in the 50-150 feet range. Under certain circumstances you can get more or less range out of them.

Your cell phone operates using a different part of the radio spectrum, as does FM radio, AM radio, CB radios, short wave radios and a whole host of other devices. The radio spectrum is actually very crowded when you think about it. In any case, putting your remote up to the cell phone would be like having a disc jockey put it up to his mike at the local radio station. It's not going to work. A huge oversimplification would be to say that the microphone (whether it's a CB radio, a DJ's microphone, or the microphone in your cell phone) is converting sound into radio waves and transmits them through the air. These devices simply cannot accept a radio wave and transmit it. There's a bazillion reasons why, the most obvious being that they do not operate on the same frequency. If cell phones could send a signal to unlock car doors the world would be quite a mess. Every time someones cell phone rang doors would lock and unlock all over the place. This is one of the reasons why the spectrum is broken up into bands. Actually, each cell phone company has their own 'spectrum' to use.

OnStar sends data to unlock your doors, very much the same way you receive ring tones and apps to your cell phone. The Vehicle Interface Unit in the car knows how to process the data (unlock the doors, check for codes, etc.) just like your cell phone knows how to process the data and load an application. It's not even sending a signal to the same device that receives the signal from your remote.

Jim

..

i don't buy it either. Cell phones work in a few different bands, 824-894 MHz (Cingular 800 GSM, Nextel, Analog, all CDMA like Verizon and US Cellular), 900-950 European "900" GSM, 1800-1900, Eurpean "DCS", and 1900-2000 "PCS" band. And now the WCDMA is in 2100-2170 MHz band. Pagers are like 300-400 MHz, and alarms are also in that range if they are RF.

No, if it happened it was a fluke, there is no way knowing these technologies would do this.

Read up on IS-19, IS-95, IS-2000 for starters. They are too technologies different to do it.

Read this (http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/keyless.asp)

didn't work for me

Looks like another one for http://www.norcalmovies.com/MythBusters/mythbusters-poster.jpg

Oh hells yeah! :thumbsup: Jamie and Adam RULE!! Anyway, as other have stated, this is a load of crap. The thought that a device used to convert sound waves into a digital signal, then process them and send it via a high frequency radio signal through a system of switching towers to another phone, could also transmit a radio frequency, is ludicrous(that's was kina long). That's like trying to use a fiber optic line, to send someone a shoe. It's just doesn't work like that.

Looks like another one for http://www.norcalmovies.com/MythBusters/mythbusters-poster.jpg

Is that Chris Elliot?

That's like trying to use a fiber optic line, to send someone a shoe. It's just doesn't work like that.

LMAO!! THATS CLASSIC... Im using that in my sig.

SWEET! :thumbsup: