You're correct that microwaves are not ionizing radiation in the same way that gamma radiation is for example, but it is still dangerous. The microwaves the radar uses are at a very similar wavelength to what is used in your microwave oven at home which impart kinetic energy, and therefore heat, to small polar molecules such as water. It won't knock off electrons and give you cancer at low doses, which is why side lobing is okay-ish, but it will still flash boil water that gets in the way. I've seen videos of birds that fall out of the air after flying through the radiation path of the illuminators for the Sea Sparrow missile system.

[–] teft@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Read my reply to the other commenter. I’ve stood in front of high powered radar while transmitting. They do nothing to you. If collimated beams of microwave radar do nothing then uncollimated rays are going to do even less.

My radar was about 1/3 the power of this one you describe. If these radars were so deadly we wouldn’t have them on ships and we sure as heck wouldnt set them up near artillery like we currently do. My radar was right beside the guns pointed at them. It did nothing to the cannon crews at all and they sat in the beams for days.

[–] stoicmaverick@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Couple things: number one, you shouldn't have. Two, the energy isn't collimated coming out of the feed horn, but it sure as hell is going through a 6x12 in wave guide. Three, if you touch something, it's not an RF burn anymore, you just touched a hot thing. Four, there do have to be precautions in place when you're using radar around munitions, but microwaves don't heat up metal very much in most cases, so it's less of a concern than for either walking bags of water and lopids, or micro scale electronics, which are definitely affected. If microwave radiation is as harmless as a declawed kitten, then why is there so much attention paid to radiation safety when working around radars? If none of that is thought-provoking, then I'm curious why you feel that the same microwaves that can turn pizza cheese into magma in your kitchen, are harmless when they're multiplied by 100,000 coming out of an antenna.

[–] teft@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

If none of that is thought-provoking, then I’m curious why you feel that the same microwaves that can turn pizza cheese into magma in your kitchen, are harmless when they’re multiplied by 100,000 coming out of an antenna.

Because I understand that the frequency in my microwave is 2.4ghz and the one in the radar i used was ~8ghz and the radar you described was 900mhz. Modern radar doesn't heat things the same way that old school ones did.

If the power is what's causing the problem then sidelobe radiation would cook everyone on the ship since it's around 50% the power and extends around the radiation source 360 degrees. Also the power is only about 10 times the power of a microwave on average.

edit: a word