They don't have SPS-49s onboard USCG Cutters...

Bottom line, I'm pretty sure they used a navigational RADAR, not an air search like the 49 or the 48E.  Either of those radars would easily cook anything in front of them –– they put out several orders of magnitude more powerful radiation than a nav radar.

whats the frequency difference between a microwave oven and radar used for detecting shit?  i would imagine a microwave would operate at a higher frequency and have less range than a radar.  unless if you converted the microwave into a hand held or back pack mounted gay-dar.

And Hello Jail and Fines

I swear! The best of the WORST ideas originate on ARFCOM!

Well See...I said this is an interesting thread. I know nothing about the electronics of a microwave or how a magnetron works. I only had an idea which I learned is a bad idea. I know better than to try and mess with something I know very little about. This thread has taught me not to mess with it.

Thanks guys.



 

AN/SPS-49(v)4 had a PEP of 250kW, and an average output of 16kW.


The fixed-beam RADHAZ for the -49 is fucking insane.





USCG Cutters do have the AN/SPS-40(v)_.  I'm not too sure what kind of power that puts out.





The biggest danger from the AN/SPS-55 navigation RADAR was if it was energized while you were working aloft, the moving antenna could hit you.





I would have loved to have seen the Mythbusters try their "experiment" using the STIR (modified AN/SPG-60) on the Mk92 FCS.  Something tells me that ~1MW in CW could cook a turkey, elk, moose, sperm whale or even a Bremerloe.



 

And I think the 48E is about 5 times that PEP, IIRC...  

Without disputing anything said previously, the simple answer is yes.  You can use a microwave oven for a RADAR system, but it makes a terrible one for spotting aircraft as clouds completely block the signal.  Weather radars are around 5GHz and 10GHz because that they penetrate clouds to a degree but are also reflected by the clouds.  Radars for planes need to completely penetrate clouds but be reflected by the plane.  Commercial planes reflect most radar frequencies.  Birds, clouds, dust, balloons. etc. all reflect radar signals but with different strengths.  Also a given object will reflect different frequencies differently so a variety of frequencies are used for different purposes.  The military uses all sorts of different frequencies for this very purpose.  And sometimes you need to hit an object with several different frequencies to tell what it is.

So I guess I will not mess with the microwave to build a radar.

How about a radar jammer?

We cooked hamburgers on the fantail with an SPG-51 (using CW).

It'd be more fun and less dangerous to turn your unused microwave into a welder.

Oh it would make one hell of a jammer at whatever frequency they run.

Of course all the previous warnings about frying yourself, getting fined tens of thousands of dollars, etc, apply just as well.

ETA: Dumpster_Baby said it even better!

Damned Fire Controlmen!

What about a Port Orca or a Silverwhale?

hmmmm, the light goes on.


I can smell the wood burning already........

This may have promise. Tell me how this works.

I think that remark was made in jest. The only part that would have any use in any kind of welder is the power transformer, and it would require a lot of work.

The transformer has a 120 volt primary, a 2000 volt low current secondary, and a 3 volt high current secondary.  The only way I think of to make a "welder" out of one would be to strip off all the secondary windings and rewind a new secondary with #12 or #10 insulated wire.  This would make a high current secondary at anywhere from 5-15 volts, depending on how many turns of wire could be worked around the old secondary's bobbin.

All you would have would be something like one of those "buzz boxes" that are nothing but a couple of heavy nichrome resistance wires between the power cord and the welding cables.  They are really crappy and hard to use.  It's hard to strike an arc and sustain it.

The oven's transformer core and primary winding are only good for 1500-2000 watts of power, max, and that's a transformer from a 1000 watt or higher oven.  The transformers in ovens are a lot smaller that what is used in any transformer-based arc welder.

Bad idea.