news, The Ray Gun. (dish, antenna, Opera, video)

[John1960]

It's no longer the stuff of science fiction: the Pentagon has a real-life ray gun! It's officially called the "Active Denial System" and it shoots out a 100,000 watt beam of invisible radio waves which stops a person in their tracks. Correspondent David Martin experiences its stopping power first hand.

The Ray Gun ...on 60 Minutes; Exclusive Video Only on Yahoo! News

[harry chickpea]

Old news. Look up diathermy.

Come to think of it, this might be a situation where a tinfoil hat actually does protect against governmental rays.

Even better, someone could develop a retaliatory weapon powered by the free energy being beamed against them; like using one of those Brunhilda opera singers as a human shield to let loose an offensive aria whenever toasted. Trust the farce, Luke.

[JBrown]

Actually Harry you're correct about the foil....

Yes...there's not much new here:

And there's another bit about all this that's being ...say we say 'stretched' a bit...


From the fact that the microwave energy skin depth penetration is very shallow one can conclude that the frequency of operation is about 20 to 30 GHz. Knowing that and then looking at the dish it's obvious there's a lot of antenna Gain at those frequencies...and that translates to a tight narrow beam. In other words...the implied image of 'crowd control" is a bit much unless you are speaking of crowd control via one person at a time..

BTW a simple metallic corner reflector would direct the beam directly back at the radiating source. Like the radar reflector carried up on the mast of sailboat to insure that they are 'seen' by cargo ships etc. Of course the vehicle beaming the energy at you is an armoured vehicle so the folks inside are safe anyways...


BTW...also left out is the fact that if enough energy is being directed at you to cause discomfort than there's more than enough energy present to cause eye damage; which is why such systems aren't really in use...ie...they're Not completly without some lasting after effects.

[Prince of Lombards]

It will be interesting when local law enforcement gets these, so the government can start using this weapon on disobedient citizens who don't do as they're told. You'd think pepper balls, shields, and all the other tools we have to handle crowds would be enough by now, and they would if we didn't have overly-zealous plutocrats running our communties these days.