scott wrote:

>> Read a while ago that the RAF had to pay compensation to almost a hundred
>> car owners - one of their air-defense "steerable-array" radars went
>> haywire
>> and scanned over a road - they burned out almost every vehicle's ignition
>> and fuel injection microprocessors with the radar beam!
> 
> Haha LOL, although not so LOL if it was your car.

I agree! I'd cry my eyes out if my baby had her brains burned out when I was
just innocently driving past a radar station.
 
>> The point being an old, mechanical vehicle ignition system (carburettors,
>> a
>> rotor and points) would have just driven on with no problems.
> 
> I think that's quite a specialised failure mechanism :-)  I suspect the
> point with the ignition system is that for the same amount of money you
> can make a much more reliable electrical one than purely mechanical, given
> how a car will typically be used (ie not driving in front of an uber
> powerful radar).

Yeah, I agree. I'm amazed at the fuel consumption levels a modern
computer-controlled ignition system and fuel injection system can deliver.
I vividly remember vacations as a child, when we went down to the coast and
my dad had to manually adjust timing on the old Ford we had once we were at
sea level to prevent "pinging" when accelerating. And the joys of Saturday
afternoon carburettor cleaning, blowing out a jet (NEVER use a wire to
clean a jet!) etc. etc.

> BTW, I wonder if the police could have a portable version of such a radar,
> which they could use to stop cars...

I wonder... I'm guessing that the RAF radar was a bit more powerful than
you'd get a hand-held "speedcam" like unit to be.
-- 
Stefan Viljoen

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