Originally Posted by
chuckk2
Someone commented on a "high power" Radar. Long range radar generally has a low duty cycle or pulse rate. As a result the energy over time is much less than any sort of cw or target acquisition radar.
Decades ago, I worked with many people that had been exposed to radar RF energy while in the military. The rate of cataracts among them was much higher than normal.
It wasn't until the late 70s and 80s that the AF finally got around to installing RF monitors in shops that worked on higher power microwave equipment.
Yes please note that I said the 5KW peak power resulted in 1 kw average power. Still a very high microwave concentration.
Also I worked on the EMP simulated system at Kirtland AFB in NM.
At that facility a bank of capacitors were charged in parallel and discharged in series. The result was an EMP about 1/10 of a nuke shot. The data was then extrapolated to predict what the result would be from a nuke.
This facility is a large wooden truss put together with plastic bolts. It is large enough to hold a B52 without straining. The truss is surrounded with a maze of antenna wires to transmit the pulse.
The capacitors were charged and produced a pulse every 90 sec.
I worked in that environment 8 hours a day for three months testing the circuits in a B52.
One of the technicians in that test later developed leukemia and sued the company. As a result of the class action suit I was awarded a free physical every year for 5 years.
They never found anything unusual..
We had to cut each wire, install a probe, take the measurement and re-splice the wire.
The caption in charge of the B52 told us that when the test was over all of us were going to draw straws and the one that gets the short straw would ride with the airplane back to Rome AFB.
AS a result we were very careful with our work