US Baby Monitors Disrupt Japanese Airwaves

(NewsCore) - Baby monitors used by U.S. military families serving in Japan use frequencies that disrupt radio and cell phone traffic, military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported Tuesday.

Military officials are warning army families to turn off any baby monitors they brought with them to Japan, or ones that they ordered online.

U.S. military personnel are told about the devices when they report for duty in Japan.

According to Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the monitors broadcast in the 900 megahertz range and can break into frequencies reserved for cellular phones.

Emergency, taxi and trucking communications also use similar frequencies.

Recent incidents of interference have been reported on Okinawa and in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamaguchi and Nagasaki prefectures.

The problem occurs each year in summer months, when one third of military families based in Japan are replaced by newcomers who are unfamiliar with the country, the newspaper reported.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Service's [AAFES] online store has discontinued shipments of the items to addresses in Japan.

"We don't sell any noncompliant monitors or telephones in our Japan or Okinawa exchanges," Jeffrey Craven from the AAFES told the newspaper Tuesday.

A survey last year reportedly revealed 33 incidents of unauthorized frequency use from housing on Japanese army bases, or off-base homes rented by U.S. citizens.