Asger
September 20th, 2002, 08:38 AM
(Here goes my first new post as a newbie - hope I'm not still too early)
There is really two issues here : - how to make a functionally portable microwavegun.
- And and then using that gun to set off moving charges. With moving charges I have either spudgrenades or rockets in mind.
This is because I think it could be awesome to detonate a grenade or rocket in mid air at will - and I have seen several ocations where people discussed such capabilities, but never this solution.
The main advantage with this proposal is that the electronics that is sacrificed with the grenade is very cheap and easy to get. The expenses is moved away from the reciever onto the transmitter. The transmitter could even be from a cheap semidefect microwaveoven.
What I would appreciate is first of all your opinions wether this can be done at all or not. I had some very basic theoretic thoughts myself.
As for the microwave gun I was thinking 500 W effective output. (1000 W electrical input ?) Could be driven for shorter periods from a car battery. And all that would be necessary would be a short burst for the detonation.
A sort of perhaps double parabolic antenna would hopefully keep all the radiation within a few degrees. That is i would like an area of say 10x10m at 100 meters to contain all the radiation (5 degrees).
Then all the rocket or grenade would need to carry to detonate the charge would be :
a small powersource eg. a battery or a freshly charged capacitor, a flashbulb in some AP for detonator, a sensitive transistor (MosFet?) and of course an antenna eg. a coil of some sort.
As soon as the antenna picks up the relative (to other electromagnetic fields) powerfull microwaves this pulse will be amplified by the transistor which will dump the energy from the powersource into the flashbulb.
Now if the antenna picks up signal from an effective area of 10 cm2 that would equal something like 5mW out at 100 m. Should be more than enough to trig the transistor. The square area of a 1½" spud gun is about 10 cm2 - suppose you mount the antenna in the butt of the grenade.
Once the microwavegun is ready, it would be fitted with a low x scope (eg. 2,5x) and the mounted along the spudgun or rocketlauncher. When the ordnance is fired you would have to quickly find it around the crosshairs - just within the before mentioned 5 degrees. You then track it and fire a shot of microwaves at it when it is time to detonate it - say if it is about to pass close by but not hit the intended target. Like if you fitted your rocket or grenade with both impact det. and microwave det.
One could even make a timing circuit between the launch trigger and microwavetrigger to have the round explode at a given distance. - Knowing ofcourse the flighttime from tests or calculations.
Cons :
- I have heard that lifetime of magnetrons might be lower when they function outside the cavity of the oven.
- Heavy contraption
- Having to find and lock the flying grenade with a scope yourself.
You probably don't want to mount the microwavegun assembly on the spudgun itself due to recoil but ask your buddy to aim it at the target and be ready to pull the trigger when the grenade closes in on target and thus shows up in the scope.
And don't carry armed grenades of this kind into areas with heavy radiosignals. A cellphone could most likley trig it....
Thanks for listening
<small>[ September 20, 2002, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: Asger ]</small>
There is really two issues here : - how to make a functionally portable microwavegun.
- And and then using that gun to set off moving charges. With moving charges I have either spudgrenades or rockets in mind.
This is because I think it could be awesome to detonate a grenade or rocket in mid air at will - and I have seen several ocations where people discussed such capabilities, but never this solution.
The main advantage with this proposal is that the electronics that is sacrificed with the grenade is very cheap and easy to get. The expenses is moved away from the reciever onto the transmitter. The transmitter could even be from a cheap semidefect microwaveoven.
What I would appreciate is first of all your opinions wether this can be done at all or not. I had some very basic theoretic thoughts myself.
As for the microwave gun I was thinking 500 W effective output. (1000 W electrical input ?) Could be driven for shorter periods from a car battery. And all that would be necessary would be a short burst for the detonation.
A sort of perhaps double parabolic antenna would hopefully keep all the radiation within a few degrees. That is i would like an area of say 10x10m at 100 meters to contain all the radiation (5 degrees).
Then all the rocket or grenade would need to carry to detonate the charge would be :
a small powersource eg. a battery or a freshly charged capacitor, a flashbulb in some AP for detonator, a sensitive transistor (MosFet?) and of course an antenna eg. a coil of some sort.
As soon as the antenna picks up the relative (to other electromagnetic fields) powerfull microwaves this pulse will be amplified by the transistor which will dump the energy from the powersource into the flashbulb.
Now if the antenna picks up signal from an effective area of 10 cm2 that would equal something like 5mW out at 100 m. Should be more than enough to trig the transistor. The square area of a 1½" spud gun is about 10 cm2 - suppose you mount the antenna in the butt of the grenade.
Once the microwavegun is ready, it would be fitted with a low x scope (eg. 2,5x) and the mounted along the spudgun or rocketlauncher. When the ordnance is fired you would have to quickly find it around the crosshairs - just within the before mentioned 5 degrees. You then track it and fire a shot of microwaves at it when it is time to detonate it - say if it is about to pass close by but not hit the intended target. Like if you fitted your rocket or grenade with both impact det. and microwave det.
One could even make a timing circuit between the launch trigger and microwavetrigger to have the round explode at a given distance. - Knowing ofcourse the flighttime from tests or calculations.
Cons :
- I have heard that lifetime of magnetrons might be lower when they function outside the cavity of the oven.
- Heavy contraption
- Having to find and lock the flying grenade with a scope yourself.
You probably don't want to mount the microwavegun assembly on the spudgun itself due to recoil but ask your buddy to aim it at the target and be ready to pull the trigger when the grenade closes in on target and thus shows up in the scope.
And don't carry armed grenades of this kind into areas with heavy radiosignals. A cellphone could most likley trig it....
Thanks for listening
<small>[ September 20, 2002, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: Asger ]</small>