From: jwill@AstraGate.net (John Michael Williams)
Subject: Re: Any ideas on measuring radiation in the home ?
Date: 2 Oct 2002 22:00:36 -0700
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 2002 05:00:36 GMT
"News2020" wrote in message news:<%_wk9.52964$1C2.email@example.com>...
> I just noticed that even unplugging an microwave oven while not in use
> releases a burst of radiation (even at 2 feet away with the oven closed). used a small led detector.>
I've read several of the postings in this thread.
I think maybe advice to build your own apparatus may
not be constructive, because if you are asking this
kind of question seriously, you may not have the expertise.
You can buy a MicroAlert microwave detector for about $90
It is sensitive from about 100 kHz to around 3 GHz, and if
you unplug an inductive load near it, it will peep.
You can use it to detect RF-based evesdropping bugs
in your home, if you suspect them. You can tell when
someone is using a cellphone nearby, etc. Hold it near
your computer monitor, and it will pick up the scan.
The general principle of RF detection is: Get
an antenna, connect a detector (diode), amplify it,
and display the result on an oscilloscope,
People educated in radio engineering often
are not aware that the diode stage is
an electronic design requirement. Because
diodes are not evident in the human body, they
assume there is no detection. Ultimately, this
misunderstanding leads them to conclude the body
must be a thermal detector, if at all.
"Either diodes or temperature" is the reasoning.
This may explain the many rather puzzling statements
in response to your question.
But auditory response to radar pulses has been
very well established in the peer-reviewed scientific
literature. It can not be explained in terms of
rectification (diodes) or heat: There is not enough power.
Frey (1962) has calculated that the human auditory system
(probably the inner ear) can detect radar pulses in the
GHz range (carrier; rep rate in audio range) almost as well
as a transistor radio can pick up a station. Read the
scores of experiments reported in the supplement to Radio
Science in 1977. Frey published a report in Science
magazine in 1979 (v. 206, p. 232), and it will give you a
way to back-track the literature from there.
So, don't believe anyone who says that the human
body is insensitive to RF, except the thermal effects.
There are other effects. Happily, they are not usually
NOTICEABLY produced by commonplace utilities, so we are not
bothered by them, unless, of course, someone purposely
makes it so.