On 1 Oct 2006 19:06:32 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly"
wrote:


mm wrote:
On 30 Sep 2006 13:53:09 -0700, wrote:

Radio Shack used to sell a microwave detector. Maybe it still does, I
don't keep track.

I have one and it works well.

How do you know it works well? Because when cheap microwave detectors
have been tested by qualified people, they've usually found that they
either give false positives (even when the oven was turned off --
they're not tuned to just microwaves but will detect any signals)) or
they read zero (in one case, even inside the oven). The most reliable
ones use either a fluorescent light tube (not very sensitive but should
glow slightly in a dark room if held right next to the oven and the
leakage is around 5-10x the legal maximum) or liquid crystals
(sensitivity unknown).

I had a microwave oven that worked well** that had no latch on the
door. It was built that way. I held the detector by the door and all
around and it showed zero everywhere. The moment I cracked the door
open, the reading started to climb, fairly quickly, and in proportion
to how much the door was open. To be sure, it never got more than 1/4
scale, but I could only open the door a little before a safety switch
turned the oven off. I think that was a pretty good test.

It uses a meter with a needle.

**It was Amana Model #2. I've not seen Model #1, but model 2 looked
like the picture they used for decades to represent a microwave. I
fixed it a couple times, but finally the transformer burned out, and
they wanted 250 for the part.