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Comment by aarong11 | Hacker News Reader

Leave the microwave running

Build a detector which can differentiate from normal traffic and a "scan" like this.

Wire up an RPI to a motor which reorients a 2.4ghz parabolic dish, first discovering the direction and elevation which best picks up the signal from the "scanner". Then, engage the old microwave emitter you've hooked up to the dish.

You will like as not fry their equipment. Bonus: the attacker may never have children.

That's the best part of it: the technique seems to be passive.

Fry everything then.

Wouldn't you need two microwaves for each axis (XYZ), facing opposite direction? So six microwaves in each room. You have to remove the door switch because you need to leave them running 24/7.

let's not be silly. just put it in the attic so each room is covered centrally. you may need a higher wattage microwave though.

Mine is around 800w. Would a single 1600w be as good in the attic centre as two 800w evenly spaced?

This all makes me wonder on the efficiency of the original idea. if you have 6 microwaves oriented in each of the directions of an XYZ plane, there would be the assumption that the coverage would be radiating out so there are no gaps in coverage. You could then rotate the rig, but that gets complicated for all 3-axis to rotate. But if you're rotating, then why not just one for each axis. Also, is the axis pointing at the ground even necessary to radiate?

So now we have to consider the wattage of a rotating system, and how fast does it need to rotate so the time not directly being radiated doesn't cause gaps in coverage. There's a lot of variable to cover here.

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