Posted: 4/29/2010 10:01:49 AM EDT
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I heard a story once about a cheeky crew chief shoving a turkey into the nose of a f-18 for the purposes of cooking the turkey.
I know that modern radars throw off a lot of energy but that still seems like a tall tale. If an aircrafts radar could cook a turkey, what could a ships radar do if you pointed it at someone nearby? |
| Almost certainly a flightline urban legend... but there are danger areas extending out quite some distance from the various antennae on modern fighters (and other transmitting vehicles or fixtures), inside of which RF radiation can do quite a bit of thermal damage to a person's body. The danger area for personnel from the F-15's various radar sets is 302 feet. I REALLY would not want to be within a few feet or yards of one when transmitting. |
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Quoted: Almost certainly a flightline urban legend... but there are danger areas extending out quite some distance from the various antennae on modern fighters (and other transmitting vehicles or fixtures), inside of which RF radiation can do quite a bit of thermal damage to a person's body. The danger area for personnel from the F-15's various radar sets is 302 feet. I REALLY would not want to be within a few feet or yards of one when transmitting. Thermal damage IS cooking. What kind of power are these radars putting out? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Almost certainly a flightline urban legend... but there are danger areas extending out quite some distance from the various antennae on modern fighters (and other transmitting vehicles or fixtures), inside of which RF radiation can do quite a bit of thermal damage to a person's body. The danger area for personnel from the F-15's various radar sets is 302 feet. I REALLY would not want to be within a few feet or yards of one when transmitting. Thermal damage IS cooking. What kind of power are these radars putting out? I know, I was just trying to put it into a less... culinary kind of term. 
ETA: I'll see if I can look up the power output when I get to work tonight, although I'm sure someone will use the internet to post the answer before I can. |
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The higher the frequency, the more efficient it is at heating up solid objects. But at higher frequencies, penetration into the object is less, too, so you end up with burns that are closer to the surface. At 90 GHz, it'll burn your skin but won't go much deeper. A typical microwave oven is in the 1000 watt range. Radar units on fighters typically start out at around 5KW. Yes, they'll burn your ass. And your insides. You certainly COULD cook a turkey with one, I think. CJ |
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Quoted: Fail. APG-79, etc radar are X-band, 8-12GHz. Microwave oven freq is ~2.5GHz. SPY-1 is S band, 2-4 GHz and puts out 6 MW. Navy thingy about related stuff: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:poATg5atroAJ:www.fas.org/man//dod-101/sys/ship/docs/ddg_08-91r3.html+SPY-1D+safety&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us It talks about the risk of RF burns and minimum safe distances. ETA: According to that doc DO NOT ILLUMINATE HELICOPTERS IN FLIGHT OR DURING TAKEOFF OR LANDING, WITH THE AN/SPY-1D RADAR IF WITHIN 2135 FEET OF THE SHIP WHEN OPERATING AT HIGH POWER OR 525 FEET WHEN OPERATING AT LOW POWER; OR WITH THE MAIN BEAM OF THE AN/SPG-62 RADARS IF WITHIN 1850 FEET (HERP SAFE DISTANCE) OF THE SHIP |