harris@imsvax.UUCP (Harris Reavin) (05/31/85)
(bug food)
I have an unusual request, but in comparison to the weird and
antisocial behavior of some individuals on USENET it should fit right in.
I have a friend in N.Y. City who thinks a neighbor may be directing some
sort of energy device at him such as ultra high frequency sound or microwaves.
I have heard that microwaves can cause certain symptoms. In downtown Manhattan
it is possible that he is in the field of a misdirected microwave transmitter.
I have seen ads in guns magazines advertising such devices to repel rodents
and intruders. My friend is not so crazy that he does not realize that the
vibrations he feels may be due to a mental disorder. He recently checked
himself into a mental hospital to determine if it is all a delusion.
For his own piece of mind he has asked me to post this query.
Does anyone on the net know what kind of equipment would be required
to detect the presence of these waves, and what companies or individuals
in the NYC area could provide testing service at a reasonable cost?
--
Harris Reavin
UUCP: {umcp-cs!eneevax || seismo!rlgvax!elsie}!imsvax!harrisdsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (06/05/85)
Five years ago, no one would take the complaints of anyone who even
suggested that microwave radiation was the cause of their "mental illness."
Now, I suspect that 'tis possible that your friend was reading MSN, MicroWaves,
or Broadcasting and imagined that it was those periscope antennas across the
way causing his problem, but then again...
First things first: if it is ultrasound acoustical energy which you
suspect, the source has gotta be pretty nearby, or he has a rich co-conspirator
at ConEd. I'd assume that Bruel and Kjaer make acoustical transducers at the
frequencies in question, get a good wideband amplifier, and sniff around using
an oscilloscope. You might even find something like one of those little
rodent annoyers in his/her apartment...some people can hear up to 100 kHz
if the transducer is pressed against the skull.
The microwave energy in question can be found with an ordinary spectrum
analyzer. Lest anyone who thinks that 0.00005 femtowatt causes biological
damage start flaming, I'd suggest that anything which shows up on a straight
piece of wire sticking out of the input connector warrants investigation.
The last thing you want to do is connect a good broadband antenna and possibly
octave LNA; I just tried this in my office this morning (the antenna part)
and the results would probably be alarming to your friend.
Finally, does your friend just "happen" to live where there is a large
field from broadcasting stations? The newfangled, CP high gain FM and TV
transmitting antennas really push that RF out the horizontal plane, and some
experienced tower workers claim that they can feel dielectric heating from
these installations. One such notorious installation is the antenna farm at
Seattle, where KING-TV and about 10 (?) FM's share a common spot of land.
The FCC and EPA are currently investigating this and some sites in NYC,
see the last few (say, 7) issues of Broadcasting about this. Whatever
county Seattle is in banned any further construction at this antenna farm
because of neighbour complaints.
It is difficult to imagine, but there might be people who are sensitive
to low incident RF fields, or your friend could have some small tumour which
secretes more (or less) of something when it is dielectrically heated. If
your friend checks out more or less psychiatrically OK, it might be neat to
get this person into a 24 hour EEG laboratory and soak them with RF while
they sleep.
The "neighbour" part of your description doesn't sound all that plausible,
but then again, most people don't know where RF comes from, and only have
an attenuated sense of a "problem" when they are in high RF fields. You
should be able to find some strapping young college student to make the
prerequisite measurements. Good luck, and let me know if your friend is in
the 5 V/M field of some antenna.
David Anthony
Chief Development Engineer
DataSpan, Inc. UUCP: (akgua, philabs, decvax, duke!mcnc!unccvax!dsi)
.snoopy@ecrcvax.UUCP (Sebastian Schmitz) (06/05/85)
Summary: Expires: References: <imsvax.339> Sender: Reply-To: snoopy@ecrcvax.UUCP (Sebastian Schmitz) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: European Computer-Industry Research Centre, Munchen, W. Germany Keywords: Hmmm. This sounds strange. Lets assume that your friend is really not crazy. I doubt that the person concerned is using microwaves. In fact just yesterday I read an article in a German journal which claimed that the damage caused by microwaves is caused by the heat. They cited the case of a german radar technician who walked inadvertently walked in front of an active NATO radar aerial. His blood clotted and he was rushed to hospital. He died of two heart attacks caused by his thickened blood two weeks later (i.e. not immediately). Now its not generally disputed here that microwaves will harm genetic material, but that would only be noticed if he has kids. It would certainly not cause "strange vibrations". Ultrasonics - well maybe but they really cause pain in the inner ear and its a bit difficult to focus the sound in a buildt up area due to the reflections etc. Now this means that the person who uses the ultrasonics is likely to get a dose himself which is not a pleasant experience. The pain in the ear is tremendous (knocks you down). So my guess is he uses sub-sonics. These can certainly make you feel awkward and cause headaches, depressions etc. However their directionality is a lot worse than high frequencies. So to sum it up: there is little a nasty neighbour can do to make your friend feel that way. There may be other things: have you got a subway running under the house ? Or a big water mains ? Or something like that ? That may be the reason. Hope I have helped. If it does not get better your friend should move. That should help. Bye, -- Love, Sebastian (Snoopy) "You haven't done it, till you've done it with pointers" \!mcvax\!unido\!ecrcvax\!snoopy /* N.B. valid csh address */
punia@uvm-gen.UUCP (David T. Punia) (06/13/85)
Does anybody recall hearing the story a few years back about the American embassy in ? being bombarded by microwaves? The physiological effects of chronic long term exposure to microwave radiation (not the short term, heating effects) are still under study. My guess is that they may not be that harmless. As for genetic effects, one must not procreate to see the effects of genetic mutation. Your body creates millions of new cells each day. If the genetic material of reproducing cells is altered, usually they do not reproduce. But sometimes the ones that do are called cancer. It is a well documented fact that a significant number of individuals that worked around radar antennae during the war now suffer from cataracts. Another interesting note: The Soviet Union's regulations regarding spurious microwave emissions (e.g. from microwave ovens) are fully two orders of magnitude more stringent than the US's. Maybe they (who?) are not telling us something. -- *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR FAVORITE DISCLAIMER *** ------------------------------------------------------------------ David T. Punia, Dept. of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, The University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405-0156 802-656-3330 USENET --> ....!decvax!dartvax!uvm-gen!punia CSNET ---> punia@uvm
dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc) (06/13/85)
Allegedly, this was an attempt to use the windowpanes in the US
Embassy as a frequency modulator. The extremely subtle (relative to
--oops-- but not relative to one wavelength) vibration of the windowpane
caused by speech, etc. could theoretically be "recovered" in a
frequency discriminator, permitting "remote electronic eavesdropping."
You would need real microwaves (in excess of 40 gHz) to pull this off,
though. I don't know if this was actually the case but I think this was
in one of the microwave fishwrapper journals.
David Anthony
Chief Development Engineer
DataSpan, Inc.
.js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) (06/18/85)
> Allegedly, this was an attempt to use the windowpanes in the US > Embassy as a frequency modulator. The extremely subtle (relative to > --oops-- but not relative to one wavelength) vibration of the windowpane > caused by speech, etc. could theoretically be "recovered" in a > frequency discriminator, permitting "remote electronic eavesdropping." > > You would need real microwaves (in excess of 40 gHz) to pull this off, > though. I don't know if this was actually the case but I think this was > in one of the microwave fishwrapper journals. > David Anthony Howcome you'd need real microwaves? I'd think a UV laser beam would work much better anyway. Such a system seems easy enough to design, so I think we can safely assume that the CIA or some such organization has already got them. -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j "I went down to the Scrub and Rub, but I had to sit in the back of the tub." - Dylan
malloy@ittral.UUCP (William P. Malloy) (06/20/85)
> Howcome you'd need real microwaves? I'd think a UV laser beam would work >much better anyway. Such a system seems easy enough to design, so I think >we can safely assume that the CIA or some such organization has already got >them. >-- >Jeff Sonntag >ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j As a matter of fact I remember reading several years back that the CIA HAD in fact designed just such a device. It worked on the window glass directly, but in fact was better suited to some piece of glass inside the room. Say the glass in a frame over a photo on your desk. This was in an article I read back when former Senator Frank Church was head of the Intelligence committee. {comments on that should go to net.politics} If I remember correctly the device (at least in it's original design) was very flakey. It had been designed, then sent to be field tested in some unamed African country. Where it worked stupendously well. Unfortuanately the CIA had never gotten it to work anywhere near as well since that field trail. I can only presume that by now, with the application of a few years of R&D research, and the addition of some microprocessors to elimanate the noise problem, it's now VERY effective. This article said that the only way to have secure conversations, was to get rid off all the windows, along with all electronic devices which might be used to hide the more common bugging equipment. Even then I'm sure someone could listen in if they really wanted to. -- Address: William P. Malloy, ITT Telecom, B & CC Engineering Group, Raleigh NC {ihnp4!mcnc, burl, ncsu, decvax!ittvax}!ittral!malloy
john@hp-pcd.UUCP (john) (06/21/85)
<<<< The most reasonable theory about the Russian bombarding the US embassy with microwaves was that they had implanted "Bugs" in the walls and were beaming energy to keep them charged. I mean you cant expect them to run wires to them and plug into the wall outlets. As far as the E-field level in large cities goes , you might try turning off you florescent lights and then see if they still emit any light. If so your neighbor is probably using a Telsa Coil on you :) John Eaton !hplabs!hp-pcd!john
gts@dmcnh.UUCP (Guy The Schafer) (06/22/85)
> > Allegedly, this was an attempt to use the windowpanes in the US > > Embassy as a frequency modulator.... > > ...permitting "remote electronic eavesdropping." > > David Anthony > > ...Such a system seems easy enough to design, so I think we can safely > assume that the CIA or some such organization has already got them. > Jeff Sonntag As a matter of fact, there are government buildings in Washington DC that have small speakers along the frame of the outside windows directed at the windowpane surface which continuously pump extraneous noise and/or music at them. This protects these windows since it causes them to vibrate with the closer, more powerful source than the voices of the room's occupants. Just thought you'd like to know. +--------------------------------+ | USENET: decvax!sii!dmcnh!gts | "It is improper to | USMail: Guy T. Schafer | describe making love | 14-F Hampshire Drive | to one's sister." | Nashua, NH 03063 | - John Irving +--------------------------------+
parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (06/24/85)
> > > Allegedly, this was an attempt to use the windowpanes in the US > > > Embassy as a frequency modulator.... > > > ...permitting "remote electronic eavesdropping." > > > David Anthony The topic of embassy bugging, and bugging in general, is covered in Robert M. Brown's book, "The Electronic Invasion", published by John F. Rider Publisher, Inc., New York. -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414