vibrator said to be threat to national security

[SarahG]

Vibrator 'threat to national security'

May 09 2007 at 03:33PM

A radio-controlled vibrator made in Britain has been banned in Cyprus after it was branded a threat to national security.

The Cypriot military are concerned the sex toy's electronic waves will disrupt the army's radio frequencies on the island.

A spokesperson for makers Ann Summers confirmed its Love Bug 2, a small, egg shaped device operated by a remote control, was on sale for use everywhere in Europe - except Cyprus.

"The remote control only has a range of six metres. We have still been selling them in Cyprus, but with a warning urging Cypriots not to use it unless they travel abroad," said the Ann Summers spokesperson.

In its promotional literature the company describes the device as a "deceptively powerful matt silver love egg", later adding: "Not for use in Cyprus".

Military officials refused to comment on the reasons for the ban, but the government's Communications and Works Ministry said it had been a purely military decision.

"We never even saw them, they were banned before we even had a chance to check them, but if issues of national security are at stake then that is not surprising," a spokesperson said.

"The military does operate on a different frequency to the general frequency, but they do not share that information for obvious reasons, only they would have been able to decide what SRD's (Small Range Devices) might be a threat and what to do about it."

Lizzie Eddleston from the Ann Summers press office in the UK said: "It is a shame but we have to honour the request and have made it clear that the Love Bug is not for sale in Cyprus.

"We have been told the electronic waves given off by the 'Love Bug' would affect military frequencies, but we have told locals that we have a lot of other devices that are not banned which will satisfy their needs. After all, it's better to make love, not war." - Ananova.com

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1178707839645V163

[chefmike]

Interesting....that is when you consider that the dildo inhabiting the oval office is currently the biggest threat to US security....

[wendy48088]

I don't for a second actually believe that the remote controlled vibrating egg would interfere with military radio communications - the transmitter's output power would be much too low. I would guess that they are probably on or near the same frequency band, so some government paper pusher just went ahead and put it on the list of banned items...

This article does explain some things about radio frequency interference...

http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/200563005732.asp

Do Not Attempt to Change the Channel
by James Dunnigan
June 30, 2005

Garage door openers are under assault by military radios, and it’s no ones fault. For over half a century, one of the radio frequencies reserved for military use in the United States has been the 380 to 400 megahertz band (FM radio, for example, broadcasts on the 88 to 108 megahertz frequencies). For about two decades, manufacturers of garage door openers were allowed to use the 390 megahertz frequency, because the openers were very short range (low power) and unlikely to interfere with military radios (or vice versa). But a new generation of military radios has changed all that, by sending out powerful 390 megahertz signals.

The problem was first noted last Fall, as new radio systems, using the 390 megahertz frequency, were installed on military bases. By 2008, some 125 bases will be using the new radio system. The Department of Defense says that the new radios only make garage door remote control systems inoperable. But thousands of users report that they have seen the garage doors open and close by themselves. Since the garage door system manufacturers are using the 390 megahertz frequency unofficially (but with the knowledge of the government), they will have to change their equipment to use another frequency. That could cost up to a hundred dollars, or more, per system. Garage opener manufacturers, based on reports from their repair technicians, believe that the new radios interfere with garage door controllers up to 80 kilometers from military bases. That’s over 50 million garage door systems.

There will be more problems like this, as more wireless equipment comes into use, and the military makes more use of frequencies they have long “owned.” It's not a new problem, and was first noted on a large scale during the 1991 Gulf War. Here, there was a large concentration of military equipment form all the American military services, and foreign armed forces as well. There were several unexpected incidents where frequencies collided in unexpected ways. There was some of this again in 2003 in Iraq. There will be more, and some of it will be deadly.