Cell booster interfered with the keypad in a Phoenix warehouse

I was doing a routine service call on a commercial alarm in Phoenix last month. The customer said their keypad was randomly beeping at 3 AM and the panel kept showing a false tamper. I checked all the zones and the wiring looked clean. Turned out the new cellular signal booster they installed in the same room was putting out interference that messed with the wireless contacts near it. I moved the booster antenna about 30 feet away and reran a full sensor test. That killed the problem instantly. I have never dealt with that kind of RF clash before, usually it is the other way around with the alarm tech accidentally blocking a cell signal. Has anyone else seen a consumer booster cause false alarms on a wireless system like this?

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the_jake2mo ago

Yeah I ran into nearly the exact same thing last year. A customer had one of those cheap Amazon boosters strapped to a pipe right above their alarm panel and the thing was screaming across the 2.4GHz band. Wireless contacts within 20 feet were either missing their check-ins or straight up popping false tamper alarms every few hours. Moving the antenna helped but what really solved it was switching the panel and sensors to the other frequency. Some of those consumer boosters are absolute trash for harmonics and they bleed into everything. If you ever see it again, check the sensor's RSSI numbers before you start relocating stuff. Also worth noting that the booster's power supply can cause issues on its own. I had one where the wall wart was shooting noise right into the AC wiring and messing with the panel through the transformer. Same symptoms, totally different fix.

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