On 17/08/2011 12:50 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
[snip]

However, the cordless phone is another story. The base transmitter
puts out about 10 mw into a really crappy 1/4 wave antenna, which will
product about -20dBm at the handset (with lots of assumptions that I
don't want to get into). The handset has a sensitivity of about
-104dBm, requiring an isolation of 84 dB to completely block the
signal. That's 30dB or 1000 times more than the 54 dB that the
microwave oven shielding can provide, so the cordless phone rings.


Sounds correct.
I have a 5.8GHz cordless.
It rings when in the microwave
Maybe someone can test a 2.4 one?

Note: All the numbers I supplied are bad guesses and are probably
wrong. However, since the isolation difference is 1000 times, it's
highly improbably that my numbers are in error by a factor of 1000. If
you have better numbers, that's fine, but the results will be the
same. The cordless phone will ring, and the cell phone will not.