Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 21 May 91 03:26:07 GMT From: Julian Macassey Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: RF Detonation (was Cellular on planes) Reply-To: Julian Macassey Message-ID: Organization: The Hole in the Wall Hollywood California U.S.A. Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 383, Message 5 of 6 Lines: 31 In article Mike Spann writes: > Digging way back into my memory, I do remember a story (maybe even > true) where police officers were told not to dump their spare bullets > into the same bag as their hand held radios. The story I was told was > that should the push-to-talk button be pressed, the electro-magnetic > waves could cause a round to go off. When pressed to explain, their > technical expert said that the oxides between the primer and the case > could act as a rectifier at 150 MHz, and convert some of the five watts > of radio energy into a DC voltage. > Supposedly, this DC voltage could set off the primer and therefore the > bullet. There was a case in Florida (Miami I beleive) where a cop put his walkie-talkie spare battery pack and bullets in the same pocket. The internal resistance of NiCad batteries is very low which means they can pump lots of current through a bullet. The heating is enough to detonate the bullet. In fact I have met a couple of people who were badly burned when loose change shorted out a spare battery pack in a pocket. Also I doubt 150 Mhz RF would flow in a bullet which is hardly resonant at 150 Mhz (2 Meters). Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo.info.com ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian 742 1/2 North Hayworth Avenue Hollywood CA 90046-7142 voice (213) 653-4495