The Empire State Triangle

From Jose Fritz Oct. 2 in Arcane Radio Trivia:

In New York City, inside a 5-block square is an area referred to by locals as the Automotive Bermuda Triangle. It is the five block square around the Empire State Building. It is an area where vehicles mysteriously die. The specific borders of the area are unclear but even AAA recognizes that it exists.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day...You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up...." -Isaac Leviev, (Manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery)

There are a number of oogie boogie explanations for this of course, but the big theory is that it has a little something to do with it's main 200-foot tower and more specifically the antennas all over it. AAA reports that 10 to 15 cars die on that square every day, an average of 3,000 stalls a year.

So here's the theory. Most of these cars have remote keyless entry. Remote keyless entry systems operate on licensed wavelengths as provided for by the FCC. Some engineers have hypothesized that broadcasts from the Empire State Building can interfere with the remote keyless entry systems of cars. It's like radio jamming. ...And there is some support for this thesis.

Keyless entry does emit a signal from the key fob on your key chain. The RKE system broadcasts an ean encrypted data stream which can instruct your over-priced luxury vehicle to start, stop run the defrost or any number of things. But it does so in the 300 MHZ range, that's the top end of the VHF range. This range happens to include FM radio, TV and Aviation. At least two of those three broadcast from 350 Fifth Ave. Which one(s) are interfering which which keyless entry cars I do not know. I only have proof of concept.

I understand that the FCC governs channel assignments to prevent these problems. But I also know that they also fine people for violating their licenses and must change laws over time. The FCC reports no complaintsregarding RFI around midtown. Many dismiss the phenomena. But it's interesting and it's possible to do by accident. On purpose it'd be downright easy.

Black hole

Following up on the Daily News story last week about a "Bermuda Triangle"-like couple of blocks around the Empire State Building in New York where some fancy new cars have trouble with their electronics and are repeatedly being towed away because they won't start, The New Yorker's Lizzie Widdicombe trolls the neighborhood with an Electrosmog meter to detect if there is a preponderance of radio waves emanating from all the transmitters atop the city's tallest building. The results: “I have a theory,” Michael Gati, a cabdriver for thirty years and co-tester of the airwaves for this story, said. “I think the building might block the antenna waves right underneath.” "An eye-of-the-storm scenario," Widdicombe writes.

Empire State Building car zap mystery

From Richard Weir in New York Daily News:

In the shadow of the Empire State Building lies an “automotive Bermuda Triangle” - a five-block radius where vehicles mysteriously die. No one is sure what’s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst - specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire. “We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Motorists like Russell Valeev, 25, learn about it the hard way. “The lights work, the horn works, everything. But it won’t start,” Valeev, a driver for Golden Touch Transportation said one recent evening as he sat in his 2005 Ford van with the hood propped open on E. 35th St., between Lexington and Park Aves. “It’s my job. No money.” The 102-story building, at Fifth Ave. between 33rd and 34th Sts., has been home to broadcast equipment since its opening in 1931, when RCA installed an experimental TV antenna.

Since the 9/11 attacks destroyed the twin towers, the building has regained its status as the leading transmission site for commercial broadcast outfits, with 13 TV and 19 FM stations mounting antennas on its spire. The Empire State Building Co., which refused to provide the Daily News a list of its antennas, denied it has created any “adverse impact” on automobiles. “If the claim were indeed true, the streets in the vicinity of the building would be constantly littered with disabled vehicles,” the building’s owner said.

According to many doormen in the area, they often are. “They park here on the block and when they come back and try to leave, they can’t start their cars,” said Martin Deda, a doorman at 16 Park Ave., which fronts E. 35th St. “I’ve seen a lot of cars get towed away,” said a doorman at 35 E. 35th St. who gave only his first name, Joseph. “I see it all the time, at least 10 times a week ... I call it the ‘Empire State Building Effect.’

Read more here.