[Elecraft] Fw: Visual CW

[Jim Campbell]

In the early 70's I worked on the flight test program of the first AWACS 
plane. (I worked for IBM and received hazardous duty pay for each of my 
flight hours.) Boeing called the "weight-on-wheels" switch a "squat" 
switch. I don't remember the power of the radar, but it was immense. 
The rule was to not transmit while on the ground (the squat switch was 
involved) but procedurally the AWACS had to be in flight and at some 
minimum altitude before the radar could be activated. Boeing Field is 
not far from downtown Seattle and is in the middle of a very built-up 
neighborhood.

Two thoughts occur to me.  First, the radar has a highly-focused beam 
and any living being that was swept by this beam while close to the 
aircraft would be in considerable jeopardy.  The second thought is with 
that much raw RF, any civilian (unshielded) electronics in the immediate 
vicinity would quite possibly have one or more leads just the right 
length to resonate.  I can imagine that such electronics would be 
adversely affected.  Military electronics have shielding against this 
and should not be affected.

The first paragraph is fact; much of the second is speculation.

Jim
W4BQP
K2 #2268

wa2dkg@juno.com wrote:

> Grumman was situated in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood, a
> situation that did not exist when they first set up shop in the '30's...A
> radar tech accidently fired up the radar in an E-2C one night and tore up
> TV reception in the neighborhood, prompting a flood of telephone calls to
> the control tower...The aircraft was jacked up for landing gear service
> so the "weight-on-wheels" was inoperative...Weight on wheels eliminates
> the ability to retract the landing gear and transmit with the radar..
> This incident made the possibility that communication between ships was
> knocked out believable...
>