[Al Skierkiewicz]

David,
There is a design issue with most radio receivers. Localalized interference can occur with transmitters that are near in frequency but high in level. Although the interferring signal is attenuated in the receiver circuitry, the offending signal causes distortions in the desired signal but overloads the receiver input. If the receiver (in our case the radio modem) has some sort of error correction software that has built in safeguards then a period of lost communication might just shut down the receiver. I am guessing this is the case with the modems. You wouldn't want the robot driving around without driver control when the signal is lost, so the software shuts down the system and disables the robot. It is the reason that this rule is in place...
<R103> Any decorations that involve broadcasting a signal to/from the robot, such as remote cameras, must be
cleared with FIRST Engineering prior to use. Teams may not use 900 MHz camera systems.
And this is the reason that radios are not allowed for communication and robots must tether everywhere except on the field at every event.