All, To me, this makes some sense. A microwave oven operates at 2450 Mhz(2.45Ghz) which puts it in band. A typical microwave generates between 500 and 1k watts. Some of this can leak out of the case and=20 ride on the power lines powering the oven. The powerlines then radiate the energy, and cause trouble.=20 Especially if the lines run close to a LAN cable junction, switch, router or hub. There are components in both the microwave oven and in the switch/hub or router that generally take care of any RFI on the power lines, but with the strength of the microwave energy to start with, some of it can get through by brute strength (RF Field Strength). And, the older the microwave, the less effective these protection schemes are, if the particular oven even has them. Some of the older ones doon't have the protection that the newer ones do. And the older ones technology isn't as advanced as the more current ones.=20 So, taking all of this into account, it seems to reason that what is being seen could happen. Why it happens only when there is a load though is a puzzler. I still believe it has to do with modulation effects. =20 =20 Regards, Jim > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [OT] Radiation from microwave oven > From: Marcel Duchamp > Date: Tue, October 12, 2010 12:34 pm > To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." >=20 >=20 > On 10/11/2010 11:48 PM, Sean Breheny wrote: > > > > Am I correct that all of the RF connections to the set top box are > > shielded cable? If so, this seems a bit scary - I wouldn't think that > > the box should be susceptible to such a small signal as can leak out > > of a properly-shielded microwave oven. Even if the IF input were right > > at 2.4GHz, there should be a continuous shield from the LNB to the set > > top box and it should take significant power to inject through this > > shielding. > > >=20 > Where I work, the microwave oven would frequently knock out our 2.4 gig=20 > wireless lan network. It made me wonder the same thing... > --=20 > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .