🚀 go-pugleaf

crisp@mips.COM (Richard Crisp) writes:
>Along the lines of the discussion of RADAR jamming/blasting, I recall a funny
>comment an M.E. friend of mine that worked on the F16 project at G.D. once
>said. He told me how some of his buddies at G.D. were putting RAM on the front
>of their cars to help elude RADAR traps. I asked "gee why RAMs?".
>After a bit of discussion, we came to the conclusion that to an M.E. RAM
>does not mean the same as it does to an E.E.
>
>To an M.E. (working on the F16) RAM = Radar Absorbent Material

	When I was with the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics I use to
	play around with RAM (though we never called it that, likely
	because we were doing radio astronomy not macho defense stuff :-)
	and often thought of coating a car with it (sigh, to be ninteen
	again).  You'll want the graphite embedded paint if you're
	considering going this route (Eccosorb Inc., Chicago? makes an
	extensive line of absorbing material).  Make sure it's spec'd for the
	appropriate bandwidth, that you put on a good 1/8" thickness, and
	that you're prepared to live with the ugliest car in the world -
	she'll be flatte black.  For all your effort you'll get a max of
	3 dB attenuation.  If you're cursed with a car with a flat front
	part i.e. upright radiator, this isn't for you.  Nor could you
	mount the pyramidal absorbers appropriate for X and K band
	wavelengths; though _extremely_ effective, they'd be much too
	long to be practical, they couldn't take the beating administered 
	to them by your forays beyond the speed limit.  Besides, your car
	would look almost as stupid as the the Chrysler Laser I saw last
	night that was decked out to look like a Lamborghini Countach,
	complete with the spoiler, painted-on intake scoops, and an
	obscene shroud that obstructed one's rearward view - some people!
	
	Caveat:  the last speeding ticket I got, they caught me from behind.

Regards, DAvin
_______________leave_nothing_to_the_imagination_of_those_without_______________
GOAL:  To dance the light fan- |Davin Yap, Mechanical Engineering, U of Toronto
tastic in the face of derision,| yap@me.toronto.edu     yap@me.utoronto.bitnet
from those bland at heart.     |       ...{pyramid,uunet}!utai!utme!yap
--