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From: awalker@topaz.ARPA (*Hobbit*)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Alarms
Message-ID: <2061@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 22-May-85 06:19:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2061
Posted: Wed May 22 06:19:46 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 23-May-85 04:22:04 EDT
Organization: LCS Expert gang, Rutgers
Lines: 26

Cheapo alarms can be made quite effective.  For instance, if you have
the external-key-switch type, the dumbest thing you can do is mount the
keyswitch on the fender like most people do.  The miscreant will simply bend
up your wheelwells and cut the wires, get in, and drive away.  Passive
systems are more or less standard and undoubtedly have standard hacks to 
disable them.  Dealer systems [like BMW, frob the light switch to enable,
turn on ignition to disable] are ignition-key based, and we all know how
easy most ignition locks are to remove with a slaphammer.  

What you have to do is be more creative than the car thief.  A simple toggle
switch, mounted somewhere under the works of a car out of sight, will provide
a first line of defense that will be quite hard to defeat.  Something like
this allows you to have the kind of alarm that goes off *immediately* upon
door/trunk opening, instead of giving the bastard 15 seconds to destroy your
dash and make off with your stereo.  In addition, another hidden ignition
kill switch will slow him down if he's trying to drive away [and managed to
get past your hidden outside switch].  Mount your keyswitch in a clever
place, if you insist on using it.  [Most of them are relatively easy to
pick, anyway, but this isn't the usual method of a car thief..]  Keypads
and such *tell* the random that you have installed some kind of alarm or 
ignition cutoff, but if he gets surprised by an innocent-looking lack of
high-tech gear, he's quite likely to go try the next one.  There are *so*
many neat places to hide switches in a modern car that you shouldn't have
any trouble finding one that you yourself may even forget how to locate.

_H*