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Is a pocketable microwave scanner possible?

Is it possible to make a microwave, say 1-10 GHz, scanner with the size, shape and power consumption of a modern smartphone?

The question is motivated by a recent article on the "Havana Syndrome", in which certain people report sudden, debilitating sensations without apparent cause. One common suggestion is that some sort of microwave device was used to disable them. Evidence seems to be utterly absent.

Reports of distress are widely scattered and quite local in time and space. Any detection device would have to be small, cheap and easily deployed by many observers over an extended period of time for useful insights.

My own intuition is that such an attack would be very easily detected, but the last microwave spectrum analyzer I handled weighed about forty pounds. I _think_ the detection job could be done now by something shirt- pocket sized and the idea rather easily confirmed or refuted.

Am I overestimating the progress of the art?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Reply to
bob prohaska
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The microwave intensity that causes organ damage, is akin to that inside a microwave oven. A neon light detects it fine, or fluorescent tube. Why would you need to scan? Do you care about the exact frequency?

Reply to
whit3rd

bob prohaska wrote: ==================

** These work over a wide range of GHz frequencies.

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..... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

For smaller chunks of the band, look to a car "radar detector". These things are basically narrowband spectrum analyzers, but it would be possible to make one with a wider overall bandwidth. Still, it would be hard to cover the 1-10 GHz band in one pocket-size unit.

On the other hand, you could probably make a non-tuned device with a wideband antenna that would detect high power or pulsed microwave energy over that band. I'm guessing if this method of attach actually exists, it requires a pretty strong source. I've been in the area of aviation radars a number of times, and had no effects at all. I did not TRY to put myself in the beam, but could have been exposed fairly easily. So, I'm guessing that it takes a fairly powerful transmitter, and a passive detector device could be easy to build.

I'm guessing that embassies have RF detection equipment as standard issue, due to ordinary bugs and some of the special devices that were used to eavesdrop on embassies in the past. See :

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Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

No doubt they do. That would rule out high power CW microwave attacks. It still leaves open the prospect of low power, correctly-modulated attacks. Interference with normal RF activity would need to be avoided, as it would be a giveaway. Any search would likely have to be at power levels no greater than cellphone signals, with enough time and frequency resolution to cover biophysical signals, say .1 to 10 kHz.

And it supposes some electrophysiological mechanism that could detect RF to something that mimics nerve impulses, or at least obstructs them. I'm not aware of one, but living organisms are full of ionic conductors and lipids. Maybe in the right combination a sort of detector is possible. Perhaps it could be called a "fatfet" 8-)

In any case, it appears that a cellphone-sized scanner of the required sensitivity is probably not an off-the-shelf item. Hopefully somebody is working on the problem now......

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Reply to
bob prohaska

I had a couple of microwave dosimeters used at work made up by the techs. It was basically a microwave crystal set connnected to a piezo-electric buzzer. It was supposed to alert people working on radars to detect accidental exposure. They were built in small plastic "buddy" boxes and were powered by a small battery. They clipped onto your trouserbelt.

It seems you can download an app nowadays.

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Brian

Reply to
Brian Howie

Maybe Cuba genetically modified its crickets?

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Launch these against anxious, paranoid bureaucrats and you have a full blown attack.

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Reply to
Fred Bloggs

The app is not going to detect anything outside the 2.4GHz and maybe the 5GHz ISM bands.

John

Reply to
John Walliker

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