On Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 4:08:12 PM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/14/2017 3:54 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Mar 2017 15:03:26 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 3/14/2017 2:13 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 14 Mar 2017 07:12:33 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:



I'm OK with this one, a 1971 Monkey Wards. It is just a magnetron and
a spring wound timer. Not much to break and it gets the job done.

Just stand at least 30 feet away from it when it's running. :-)

I bet the shielding on the original ovens is better than today.
They were really afraid of microwaves in the late 60s and the regs
were pretty tight.



I think you would lose the bet.

The allowable leakage spec for a microwave oven in 1969 was 10mw/cm2
Today, the leakage spec is half that ... 5mv/cm2

In 1969, 155 microwave ovens were surveyed in New York, Mississippi, New
Jersey and Massachusetts and tested for leakage. 32 percent of the
155 ovens had leakage in excess of the 10mv/cm2 standard.

It's 46 years old. I doubt it would pass the leakage test, even to the
1969-1970 standards.


I am going to try Wayne's WiFi test later this evening. I will stream
a movie on my laptop so I will be hitting it hard enough to notice.



There is a very exotic test described on the following link (Method 2)
but Wayne's test is probably just as good. Just make sure your laptop
is sitting in front of the microwave.

I've always been concerned with all the electromagnetic energy we are
exposed to everyday from things like microwaves and especially cell
phones that you hold up to your head when using. You are within the
"near field" (max energy strength) on a cell phone and I just don't
believe that long term exposure is harmless. Texting is probably much
safer.

http://www.wikihow.com/Check-a-Microwave-for-Leaks

Growing up I remember hearing the local radio station on our telephone. Ma Bell finally cleaned it up after a while, but then in high school I worked with the Chief Engineer at that station in his backyard electronics shop. He told me that in the field out behind the antenna he'd measured nearly a volt of signal strength in the air. It was only 5000 watts AM, 3000 FM.

I worked there as a DJ my senior year of high school. Yes, it was fun.