Russian DYI death rays

[zapta]

It's in Russian but understandable nevertheless.  Don't try it at home.

?? ?? ?. ? ?

[wraper]

That is Luhansk, Ukraine. You can even hear shelling. Yes they are filming when war is going on.

[DutchGert]

Wtf....

Guess what happens when pointing it at a person... Weirdo's

[janekm]

Some of their videos are really cool, actually (and disturbing).
The video showing radio propagation patterns in real-world environments with the magnetron and the "walkman" is pretty much the best thing I've seen for getting a feel for how weirdly radio behaves in the built environment.

[Rerouter]

This to me kind of raises the question to what would be the minimum safe distance for a magnetron powered on and running, considering all that needs to happen to a microwave is the glass to be smashed, how far would you aim to run?

[eneuro]

what would be the minimum safe distance for a magnetron powered on and running

Many more stupid close experiments without any shielding, like those where he holds light bulbs in his hand in a place where in video above lights were bright ON 
?? ?? ?!

BTW: Which is the sense of putting magnetron in closed cylinder (pipe) side not its bottom?
Some kind of resonance and/or standing waves is needed in microwave oven to cook something, so it requires multiplies of microwave wave length box dimensions?
Why not to put simply magnetron output into long metal pipe closed in one end with the hole?
Of course reflections from flat metal parts pointed to still might be dangerous, but it looks like far more save for person holding it than showed in those stupid videos...and radar is the first thing I'm thinking about, but I haven't got any datasheets how powerfull those police radars are, but some antyradars detectors are capable detect those units far away where they are used so it must be significant power source of microwaves too, I guess... but they (police) fire microwaves into cars full of persons from different distances is it safe to which distance

[wraper]

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html Microwave oven have the same frequency as wifi BTW.

[mcinque]

Even if it's extremely stupid do this kind of things, AFAIK microwaves are defintely not ionizing radiatons so the danger is quite limited (skin burns for example), dont you?

[mzzj]

This to me kind of raises the question to what would be the minimum safe distance for a magnetron powered on and running, considering all that needs to happen to a microwave is the glass to be smashed, how far would you aim to run?

no need to run, just step back 3 feets and you are fine.

[Dago]

Even if it's extremely stupid do this kind of things, AFAIK microwaves are defintely not ionizing radiatons so the danger is quite limited (skin burns for example), dont you?

AFAIK the biggest danger is for your eyes. Because the surface of the eye has no feeling (or not much) but plenty of water (that heats up) it is pretty easy to heat it up to the point where the proteins coagulate and you permanently damage your eye.

[DanielS]

This to me kind of raises the question to what would be the minimum safe distance for a magnetron powered on and running, considering all that needs to happen to a microwave is the glass to be smashed, how far would you aim to run?

No need to run if the RF screen (perforated metal layer between the inner and outer glass) is not broken and if you are close enough to worry about microwave exposure, it would probably be simpler and safer to hit the STOP button or pull the plug than run.

[VK5RC]

Those guys are crazy, RF burns to skin are quite nasty (and deep) take quite a while to heal. I am aware of increased cataracts in microwave RF techs.
The 'safe' distance from a 600W 2.3GHz from a (approx 8dB gain) 'cantenna  using VK3UM's EMR calculator
http://www.vk3um.com/emr%20calculator.html
Using Australia's ACMA 10W/m^2 'safe limit'
ON AXIS exclusion zone = 4.4m
off Axis 0.6m

[ConKbot]

Even if it's extremely stupid do this kind of things, AFAIK microwaves are defintely not ionizing radiatons so the danger is quite limited (skin burns for example), dont you?

Indeed, no broken DNA, just blindness, deep tissue burns, possibly internal organ damage depending on the frequency. (I think 2.4Ghz would be a bit short to get to internal organs but I havent read anything on the topic)


Expanding on what VK5RC mentioned (antenna gain), the easiest way to get dangerous levels of RF power is high gain antennas.  In the beam of a 10 dBi antenna fed from a 600W source, the beam intensity is the same as being the same distance from a 6kW transmitter with an omnidirectional antenna (AKA 6kW EIRP ).

Even a 1W transmitter can start getting beyond safe personnel limits in certain bands.

But not to be all super serious about elf and safety, I saw an older article from microwavejournal recently, about a microwave oven weed burner.  I cant get the article (behind a paywall, for a 9 year old article :p ) but the images turn up in google image search, so F'em



initial testing


drawing of the microwave array


serious business

IIRC they fed it from a 3 phase PTO generator on a tractor when they tested a 'fieldable' unit.

[vk6zgo]

No matter what your antenna gain is,if your Transmitter is a 1watt unit,that is all the power you have to play with.
If it really did what some people think,it would be an "over-unity" device.

[calexanian]

You see.. Here in 'murica we blow stuff up the old fashioned way.... with black powder... Was that an actual incoming shell in the second video you can hear in the background or a sound effect? Valid question in that part of the world right now!

[zapta]

You see.. Here in 'murica we blow stuff up the old fashioned way.... with black powder... Was that an actual incoming shell in the second video you can hear in the background or a sound effect? Valid question in that part of the world right now!

It was the crazy Russian gun guy shooting a YouTube video nearby (it's an extremely popular YouTube channel):

[eneuro]

Microwave oven have the same frequency as wifi.

It is interesting and now clear why they put magnetron in cans of such dimmensions in this position- to make primitive waveguides for those a few GHz RF
Found this wiki: Waveguide (electromagnetism) - analysis , so it might be interesting to make DIY wifi directional antena.
At 2.4 GHz RF wave length is 125mm, so quater wavelength with corrections for antenas around 30mm (3cm) 

[TerraHertz]

Let's hope no military guys in the vicinity decide to fire a HARM missile, to take out that 'strange enemy radar system'.

In Bosnia the defense forces were doing that, to make NATO warplanes waste HARM missiles. Just set up any old microwave oven on a hillside with the door open and the safety interlocks defeated. Ovens use half-wave rectified AC, so the magnetron runs in pulse mode. Would make a really crappy radar transmitter, but the missiles don't care and home in on it anyway.

[mcinque]

AFAIK the biggest danger is for your eyes. Because the surface of the eye has no feeling (or not much) but plenty of water (that heats up) it is pretty easy to heat it up to the point where the proteins coagulate and you permanently damage your eye.

Indeed, no broken DNA, just blindness

Oh.  I didn't knew/consider that. It's an extremely important safety issue.

[rolycat]

It was the crazy Russian gun guy shooting a YouTube video nearby (it's an extremely popular YouTube channel):

(Video links removed)
Prototype Quadrotor with Machine Gun!
Dragon 50cal Explosive Ammo!

I don't think Russians are too welcome in Ukraine right now, particularly heavily armed Russians.

And that quadrotor video is a fake - there's no way it could lift that sort of payload.

[ConKbot]

It was the crazy Russian gun guy shooting a YouTube video nearby (it's an extremely popular YouTube channel):

(Video links removed)
Prototype Quadrotor with Machine Gun!
Dragon 50cal Explosive Ammo!

I don't think Russians are too welcome in Ukraine right now, particularly heavily armed Russians.

And that quadrotor video is a fake - there's no way it could lift that sort of payload.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/beerlift.asp

Check out the weights on the 700 class (under 700 mm from motor to motor on the multicopters) winner was almost 20Kg.  #7 was over 8 lbs with a quadcopter of about the same size as the pictured one.   I wouldnt rule it out that easy

[eurofox]

That is Luhansk, Ukraine. You can even hear shelling. Yes they are filming when war is going on.

No .... no, it is the Russian army in Jurmala 

[German_EE]

A tale for you. I was once an expert witness speaking on behalf of a manufacturer of commercial microwave ovens. The owner of one of these ovens (a Chinese takeaway) had got fed up of opening the door, putting the food in, closing the door and then hitting the start button each time so he removed the door and replaced it with a metal plate with a 5cm x 30cm hole in it. He also defeated two safety interlocks.

The oven was then left running and if they wanted to heat a meal they just put it through the slot, waited, then took the plate out again when the food was hot. They only sensed that there was trouble when their fingernails started dropping off and they had trouble moving their fingers. Three people lost all the fingers on one hand and one person lost the sight of an eye (for her the slit was at eye level).

Naturally they took the manufacturer to court because nowhere in the instructions did it say 'do not remove the door and replace it with a metal plate'. They lost, the judge actually called them idiots.

[mcinque]

They lost, the judge actually called them idiots.

Because they are!

[wraper]

It was the crazy Russian gun guy shooting a YouTube video nearby (it's an extremely popular YouTube channel):

But he is not Russian, his name is Kyle Myers.