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John Larkin

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:05:03 GMT, wrote:

In sci.physics Arny Krueger wrote:

"Ken Weitzel" wrote in message
news:IsPxi.68411$_d2.64084@pd7urf3no...

I do not know if the tracking
radar and cop's radar gun were on the same band, however I do know that
1MW of microwaves was sufficiently nondiscriminatory at the receiving
end to burn out its front end.

I bet it was sufficiently nondiscriminatory at the receiving end to
burn out the cop's front end, too.

When people talk about megawatt radars, they are talking pulse peak powers.
Radar pulses are very narrow - less than a microsecond. However, its peak
voltage that usually frys semiconductors.

If these megawatt-rated radars were not sending out short pulses, but
continuous power, they'd have to build a commerical electrical generating
plant next to them to run them in the field.

Nike HIPAR, 10.4 MW, pulse width 6 microseconds.

The array radars on the F-22 and JSF are reported to hit gigawatts
peak, and may one day get into the terawatt range. That would be
enough to fry the electronics on any current-generation missile or
plane, and maybe leave tanks and ships dead and immobile. And make
stealth planes un-stealthy at 100 mile ranges.

BAE is developing some of the laser-fired switches that make the peak
power.

John