Recently in the town of Carstairs, Alta., a Co-op parking lot was making national headlines as a dead spot for car starter fobs was discovered there.

While the mystery of the inactive key fobs swept the nation, many tried to crack the enigma and began developing theories as to what was behind the seemingly-unexplainable event.

Ranging from 5G radio towers to a signal disruptor, possible causes were passed around comment sections in attempts to solve the perplexing riddle.

While others were scrambling to find answers, Lloyd Fehr, owner of Swift Current-based Superior Tech, drew comparisons to a similar situation he experienced in the past.

Last February Fehr was made aware of an area in Swift Current where key fobs wouldn't work. Fehr was able to deduce that the issue was spurred from a faulty aftermarket key fob with the help of Swift Current's amatuer radio club.

"We had a lot of customers complaining that their remote starts wouldn't work, or they couldn't unlock their doors with their regular key fob, so we kind of took it on ourself to try and figure out what was going on and we found out it was a problem with an antenna that was broadcasting right on that whole band."

A faulty key fob was also found to be the cause of key fobs in Carstairs to stop working.

Fehr said that when he heard of the situation in Carstairs, he immediately drew a connection between the two instances. Being involved with Swift Current's amateur radio club, Fehr and the organization contacted Carstair's amateur radio club to assist in helping them track down the cause.

"It had all the telltale signs, people in this parking lot couldn't unlock their vehicles and it really affected a certain very specific vehicle and we were able to pinpoint it down to what it was, what frequency it was, just by the vehicles that were affected."

He talked about the help they provided to a ham radio operator who lived near the town.

"We decided to make contact, to show him what to do, give a little bit of advice so that he could help Industry Canada find a solution."

Fehr said that they were happy to help bring a solution to the problem and spread the knowledge of what to do in this situation as it seems to be becoming a more recognized issue.

"This is something that's happening more and more frequently and if we can get our knowledge out, it makes it a lot easier," he commented. "Those radio waves can interfere with a lot of weird things."

Fehr said that in Swift Current similar issues are common at malls or the Cypress Regional Hospital, which are hard to track due to the amount vehicles in and out of the area per day.

Swift Current's amateur radio club will try to get to the bottom of the key fob dead spots according to Fehr, helping out Industry Canada, who Fehr said wouldn't have enough resources to deal with the issue themselves.