After 10 days of normal gate operation, there have really been only two problems with the gate, both occurring on Sun Mar 5:
1) On Sun. Mar 5, at 11:30am, the ingate bar was broken by an emergency vehicle answering a fire call. The newly installed Siren-activated switch apparently did not work, probably because the sensitivity is not set low enough. RH will readjust sensitivity and test the device. After the bar breakage the bar was reinstalled and the gate resumed normal operation.
2) On Sun. Mar 5, at 1:45pm, the ingate stopped responding to gate cards. After 15 mins of attempting to raise the gate, the gate bar was removed by handy bystanders with wrenches. FS received a call about the problem and he called RH. When they arrived the screen was displaying "System in Use" and everything was locked up. Turning the power to the ingate off and then on again restored normal gate operation.
As to what caused the malfunction, we really don't know. There was one unusual occurrence. When we examined the video record, we found that at about 1:40pm a guy in a white truck went IN the OUT gate which was open due to a car exiting. This may have confused the system and cause it to lock up.
One other issue came up recently about using a cell phone to activate the gate instead of a local land-line phone. As most cell phones require that 11 digits be dialed, we tested whether the gate would work with an 11-digit number. It would not, so at this point, owners must have a local land line to be able to receive calls and let guests thru the gate.
Even if there were a way to get around this problem, the Gate Cmte thinks that a local number should still be required for gate use since:
1) We only want to admit guests to the lake via the phone when an owner (or whoever answers his phone) is on-site. If we allow cell phone entries, the owner could be hundreds of miles away from the lake and therefore not capable of monitoring his guests.
2) Most cell phone calls require dialing an 11-digit number and since this is very likely a toll call, it raises the cost of operating the gate.
Rich Hirsch for the Gate Cmte.