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From: ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu (Duke McMullan n5gax)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Radar gun zapper: fact or fiction?
Message-ID: <1198@ariel.unm.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 89 17:05:17 GMT
References: <74719@psuecl.bitnet>
Sender: news@ariel.unm.edu
Reply-To: ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu.UUCP (Duke McMullan n5gax)
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Lines: 46

In article <74719@psuecl.bitnet> peg@psuecl.bitnet (PAUL E. GANTER) writes:
>Hey!  I know the following may sound crazy--I am doubtful myself.
>
>My stepfather was recently talking to a long-haul trucker at a truck
>stop.  The guy told a tale about blasting radar guns using a very simple
>device.  Apparently the guy had an ordinary fluorescent tube mounted
>in a reflector, with no power applied.  He had copper strip wrapped
>around the tube with a regular spacing.  He placed the device inside
>his windshield facing forward, and when hit with a radar gun....
>
>                   POOF!!
>
>goes the radar gun.  Now, granted, this sounds far-fetched....

Yea, verily, doth this indeed sound far-fetched. It sounds to me about on par
with the gag of getting a toilet to explode by flushing a quart of turpentine.

FWIW, a ham I know relates the tale of the time a cop pulled him over, and
told him that the cop saw him start talking into his microphone (2 meter
mobile rig, with a 75 watt RF power amp as an afterburner...this guy believes
that power pays....) just as the cop's radar went ten-toes-up. My friend was
puzzled, and had a look at the radar unit -- sure enough, it wasn't working.
He shrugged and told the cop the only thing he could think of was that the IF
might be close to the 2M band, and something in there had gotten cooked when
he keyed his mike.

The cop asked, "What's an IF?"

After a basic introductory lecture on radio, the cop had a rough idea. He
called my friend a couple of weeks later, and related that a note he had rec-
eived from the factory when the radar was sent in for repairs confirmed that
the IF was cooked, and the factory had no idea how it could have happened,
even with a fairly hot transmitter on the IF frequency was going in the area.
(The word "he" in this last paragraph refers to the cop. Please pardon the
ambiguity.)

There was a collective shrugging of shoulders, and nobody really knows why it
happened. It had a nice side effect, though. If you listen to the right local
repeaters, you can often hear that cop signing with his new call.

						d


	"You should never threaten a man you are not going to fight,
   and if war is your intention, it is best to get on with it." -- F.J. Lovret
      Duke McMullan n5gax nss13429r phon505-255-4642 ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu