Radio Frequency (RF) weapons that can render electronics devices useless?!? Diane Sawyer was really flippin' 2night about this one.

Hmmmmmm...

Y2k may not be a weapon, but the outcome is the same, is it not? If so, how come Diane isn't concerned?

Is it possible that they're trying to dovetail the use of RF weaponry by terrorists/hostile countries and Y2k into one concern, while downplaying Y2k or not even mentioning it?

Comments, insights, or corrections regarding this, please.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 10, 1999

Answers

I saw the show. It was funny how the govt. was willing to provide information about this weapon to 20/20. Yet, to date, my impression is they are very tight-lipped regarding Y2k.

-- Zap (herf@bzzzzt.com), February 10, 1999.

We saw the weapon and what it did. We can't see y2k so it is hard for us to get excited about it. But when the ray gun thing kills a corvette now they have my attention.

-- steve (zoo@zillions.com), February 10, 1999.

Oh, THIS IS JUST GREAT.

A national threat. Talk about convenient timing.

-- --------- (--------@-------.com), February 10, 1999.

I didn't see the program. From what's said in these posts, it reminds me of many UFO contact reports, in which car engines are inexplicably stalled while the UFO is present, and a few reports of UFO interference with aircraft electronics in hot pursuit situations.

However the technology was obtained, it's a shoo-in patsy for Y2K difficulties -- blame it on the nasty terrorists.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 10, 1999.

Man, I hate those national threats. And that Diane Sawyer, she kills me....or is it the national threat that kills me....either way, guess I'm dead.

Seriously though, it's an old magic trick. If you don't want them to see what is happening in your right hand, then wave your left hand and look at it intently. Everyone instinctivly looks where you're looking, and doesn't see what is going on elsewhere. This is just a "national threat" slight of hand. "LOOK, STOP WORRYING ABOUT ALL THIS Y2K CRAP, IT'S REALLY THESE RF WEAPONS THAT WILL GET US".

please.....

"Diminishing returns assume you had something in the first place"

-- abcdGoldfish (mnoGoldfish@osar.com), February 10, 1999.

It's only a matter of time before assault style RF guns are banned. LOL

-- d (d@usedtobedgi.old), February 10, 1999.

Yes d, they probably will...but I'm sure there will a clause in said ban that will exclude the government ;-)

-- Faze the Nation (dazed@confuzed.com), February 11, 1999.

Would be a hoot if this scenario played out:

a) Faction A has RF weapons.
b) Faction B has RF weapons.
c) Faction A attacks Faction B, rendering all/most electronic devices useless, including B's RF weapons.
d) Faction A is behind on fixing Y2k.
e) Faction A is affected by Y2k, rendering all/most electronic devices useless.

-- Zap (herf@bzzzzt.com), February 11, 1999.

So they finally figured out how to do it without setting off the damn bomb. KOOL. If you want the effect widespread, set of a 1-5 Kton nuke at about 75,000 - 90,000 feet. Half the country comes crashing down from the EMP.

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), February 11, 1999.

er, didn't see the show...interesting that they'd talk about that...if that sort of thing interests you, you might also want to check and see if anything has been published in Europe concerning the old Soviet practice of "Radio Electronic Combat".

you might also consider what can be done with the innards of your average 1 KW microwave oven, with a few basic tools, some shielding, and a power source.

er, as always, suggestions are provided for educational purposes only, blah blah, don't mess with stuff that you don't understand, blah blah, your milage may vary.

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 11, 1999.

"Radio Frequency (RF) weapons that can render electronics devices useless?!?"

This technology has been around a while, and is a threat. The technology is very cheap to build - if you know what you are doing. One intelligence "insider" supposedly built a suit-case single-use device that could be quite devastating if it goes off near a computer.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), February 11, 1999.

I agree Anon99, the technology has been around for a while. What I find interesting is that 20/20 and similar shows didn't (to my knowledge) do any stories on this until now.

-- Tim (pixmo@pixelquest.com), February 11, 1999.

I forgot to mention - due to the risk of RF weapons, I have been backing-up to optical media (CD-R) for some time. In a "limited attack", at least my data would survive.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@anonymous.com), February 11, 1999.

Arlin, you should find the video or a transcript. It's fascinating. Remember the fire at our Moscow embassy in the early 80's? The Krazy Bees used an RF weapon to start it so that brave soviet firefighters could plant bugs.

It's a disturbing issue in that in a time when people experience (or expect to experience) electronics/computer failures, determining the exact cause of the failure could be difficult. Y2K? Power surge? virus/hacker? EMP? Directed energy? Normal background stupidity?

Remember that finding a cause is a big part of finding a solution. BTW, were you as surprised as I was that Clancy's last couple of books got published?

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), February 11, 1999.

This RF weapon story is almost certainly propaganda. There have been stories circulating in fringe circles for years about so-called HERF (High Energy Radio Frequency) guns capable of stopping cars, destroying electronics, etc. It's all total bulls**t. The amount of RF energy needed to destroy the electronic systems in a car, a metal car, not a fiberglass one that provides no shielding LIKE A CORVETTE, is enormous. It could not possibly be handheld because of the extreme amount of energy, in the form of capacitors or generator needed. Also, a pulse sufficient to disable shielded electronics would be fatal to occupants of the vehicle, not to mention anyone pulling the trigger. A so-called HREF gun would NOT work on the same principles a NEMP (Nuclear Electro Magnetic Pulse), which, contrary to conspiracy theory , will not destroy yout digital wristwatch or portable radio unless they have a substantial antenna connected to them. NEMP relies on inducing large circulating currents, and hence voltage surges, in long conductors such as power lines, gas pipelines, and antennae, sufficient to disable equipment connected to such conductors. NEMP has no effect on living organisms, whereas the recipient of a HERF pulse would be subject to the equivalent of a thousand or more microwave ovens beamed in his direction.

IF they are able to stop a vehicle, it isn't because of brute-strength RF. Far more likely is that there may be a "back-door" chip in the electronic ignition module that is actually a small receiver. When a proper data string on the correct frequency is received, it will permanently shut down the circuitry. This has already been marketed commercially as part of a top-end alarm system - the owner can shut down the vehicle from anywhere in the country.

Sparks, IEEE

-- Sparks (engineer@rf.com), February 11, 1999.

BTW, when certain of our intelligence agencies want to "de-bug" a whole building that may harbor built-in listening devices, they set up megawatt microwave transmitters around it. A large number of pulses are sent into the building. This is repeated many times.

Oh, yes... they evacuate the building first. As well as an area several blocks around.

Sparks, IEEE

-- Sparks (engineer@rf.com), February 11, 1999.

Chuck: Re the "bomb" ; It's a 1Megaton H bomb at 30,000 feet at the geographic center of the U.S. WILL knock out ALL radios, T.V.s and most telicommunications in the ENTIRE U.S., except for military, which have EMP ( ElectroMagnetic Pulse ) protectors. When you CAN'T get radio or T.V. , or use the phone, you know it's happened , AND that the REST of the missiles will land in LESS than 20 minutes ( depends on time AFTER the 1 Mgt explosion you tried to use same ). I believe most commintators missed the main point on the terrorist idea; Martial law can now be declared and ALL civil liberties put aside, to punish all those "terrorists" , AND while we are at it,' Those hoarders, fear mongers, and assorted mal-contents '; who ever BULL Clinton and FEMA swat teams can get in their scopes !! Eagle

-- Harold Walker (e999eagle@freewwweb.com), February 11, 1999.

Actually I think Diane's propaganda may prompt Bill to start putting money back into the military. She seemed to imply that America is even further behind that Europe in computer protection, a very slanted view indeed. But if it gets more funding for the military then that would be a good thing.

Diane didn't speak at all about the US capabilities in any of these areas, very disappointing. The US has been researching and developing these weapons for some time; I would even bet that Russia got their technology from us. Oh well, so much for "investigative reporting".

Troll Maria

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), February 11, 1999.

these kinds of weapons are not new. been around for a long time, including the foo fighters.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), February 11, 1999.

Fry a corvette? Try massive numbers of human beings, the ionosphere, etc. It is here and it is now. The 20/20 story only scratched the surface of what is out there and it's capabilities. Once again, I urge you to read and inform yourselves...

Dr. Nick Begich, "Angels Don't Play This HAARP"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0964881209/qid=918750460/sr=1- 2/002-3647344-9585819

http://www.earthpulse.com/haarp/index.html

Or if you prefer, listen on Real Audio:

http://ww2.broadcast.com/artbell/abell/9711/ab1107.ram

-- (mass@delusions.com), February 11, 1999.

Folks, here's the straight scoop on NEMP:

A nuclear device must be detonated at an altitude much higher than 30,000 feet - preferably around 60 miles or more - for NEMP to be fully effective. This is due to the manner in which the pulse is produced. Gamma radiation produced by the blast ionizes (knocks loose) electrons from the upper levels of the atmosphere, and these electrons then proceed to shower down into the lower layers in an effect called "Compton scattering". This activity creates a tremendous electrical potential in the air. Consider it comparable to scuffing across a rug to build up a static charge, but on a massive scale. When this potential reaches an object that offers a path to a lower potential, e.g. ground, it discharges through it. As is the case with lightning, maximum damage occurs when the path to ground is through equipment. As is also the case with lightning, if the charge can be shunted to ground, bypassing the equipment, then little or no damage will occur. Unlike lightning, however, the characteristic 'signature' of an NEMP event has a much lower current and a much faster 'rise time'. Equipment that is protected against lightning is not necessarily protected against NEMP.

The key here is that the NEMP pulse wants to discharge itself via the path of least resistance. It doesn't want to discharge itself through your portable radio, walkie-talkie, car electronic ignition system, or camcorder - unless they happen to be well grounded, which they aren't 99.999% of the time. It does want to discharge itself through things like the power grid and telephone system , because the conductors (wire) associated with these systems are so large that tremendous potential will build up on them and most likely discharge through the service equipment as well as anything connected to the system, like your computer and telephone, and they will suffer accordingly. Our power/telephone infrastructure is not hardened against NEMP. Also, radios connected to large antenna arrays might, and I emphasize might, suffer damage from NEMP. Tests run by the NBS, now NIST, back in the late 80's proved that most radio communications equipment will survive NEMP with minimal or no damage, even without an arrestor.

Sparks, IEEE

-- Sparks (engineer@rf.com), February 11, 1999.

Allow me to throw in a few comments.

'engineer': my experience differs from yours. True, I don't get to wear funny hats and drive trains, but I am a daily victim of what engineers inflict on society. I run an auto repair shop specializing in diagnostics.

First story: Many moons ago (like two decades) I took a college course in basic computer technology. It was a night course taught by a systems engineer with GE. Great guy, truly loved to teach I think. I walked away with lots of good basics. In describing his job with GE, he said he was a systems engineer in a defense division and could not tell us any more than that. I was a strapping inquisitive youth and took a shot at asking him something that was on my mind. I pried the cover off a GM ignition module and cleaned out the insulating gell. I showed it to him and said "I want to kill that from 20 feet away with something powered by 12V and hand held. How do I do it?" His response....I'll never forget......"Oh, that's easy, we did that years ago, but I can't tell you about it".

Story two:....How delicate are modern vehicles when it come to RF interferance? VERY. I have to constantly keep RF interferance in mind while diagnosing cars. Move the wrong wire too close to the wrong other wire and weird problems crop up at once. Give me a 110V Weller soldering gun and let me wave it at the right underhood components and I'll shut the car off. That Soldering gun has a fairly big coil and a whopping big magnetic signature.

Modern cars run grounded shielding on electrical harnesses for a reason. If that ground breaks they get positively strange. A change of .01V in a sensor circut at the wrong time can completely change how the car runs.

I have seen numerous factory notices about RF problems on every make of car out there. A big player in this field are cell phones. Some of the high power cells phones that used to be bolted in the trunk? Those things could flat out kill the car under the right conditions. The voltage induced in the wrong circut would give the ECM a heart attack and it would just quit. EERRRKKK.

Older Toyotas, and I am talking early 80's!, had owners manuals that specified keeping Ham radio antennas as far as possible from the vehicles fuel injection computer. Key the mike and drift to the side of the road.

Remember the run-a-way Audi scare of the late 1980's? The true story on that was simple. Drive the car into a parking garage and under the right kind of flourescent light under the right conditions, and the vehicles computer would run the engine idle up to 2-3000 RPM. RF interferance. I can stick my lab scope lead straight up in the air and pick up a perfect 60 hertz wave from the shop lights.

Are there RF weapons designed to kill electronics in everyday use? I have no doubt at all. I have killed them too many times by mistake, in many cases taking hours to just find out HOW I had killed them. The spark I pass to you shaking hands is all it takes to fry a PCM in a modern car. The body is a shield? Sure it is.....and it's also an antenna. The body is grounded and part of the electrical system. Shoot enough of the right type of energy at the car body and the electrical system will malfunction.

Been there, done that, got the scars.

-- Art Welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net), February 11, 1999.

It's all a means to justify an end isn't it ...

-- blackdata (sama2@erols.com), February 11, 1999.

Quote from a January 22, 1999 article in the Kansas City Star...

http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/business.pat,business/30dab.190.122,. html

On May 1-2, the nationwide COMEX/MOBEX drill will assume it is New Year's Day 2000 and telephones are not working. The test is to see if Guard Units can be notified to mobilize during what is known as a "COMM-Out" period.

Nationally, high-frequency radios will be used to reach state leaders, said Jack Hooper, a Guard spokesman in Washington. In Kansas, Moser said, old high-frequency radios equipped with vacuum tubes will be used to communicate with some Guard units.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 11, 1999.

Sorry about the typo in the link. Here it is again:

http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/business.pat,business/30dab190.122,.h tml

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 11, 1999.

In response:

The "12v handheld car killer" story is apocryphal, it's been around for years - when we aren't designing things that provide meaningful work for people, electronic engineers love to tell tales like that to eager youngsters ;)

True, a single spark can destroy an IC or any semiconductor junction, but if proper shielding and bypassing are used, the voltage will never reach it. Most problems crop up due to loose and/or nonexistent grounds, or poor/removed shielding. Many times the problems occur because things weren't replaced in the proper manner by service personnel.

Not to demean your expertise with automotive electronic systems, but what exactly do you mean by your statement that an auto body can act as an antenna as well as a shield? Sure, I can hook up a transmitter to an '89 Dodge, and get it to load up and radiate, but that uses wire and isn't what we're discussing here - we're talking about a "ray gun" that will produce sufficient RF energy inside the car body to fry the electronics without frying the occupants. No sir, it is not possible unless the electronics were intentionally designed to be affected by a specific type of RF energy, at a specific frequency. A spark might certainly do it, but that's not a pure source of RF energy. It does radiate some RF, as does lightning, but please don't compare apples and oranges... in the case of a spark it's a case of direct, not induced, application of voltage/current that does the deed. This is how some of the REAL car-stoppers used by the police work.

Sparks, IEEE

-- Sparks (engineer@rf.com), February 11, 1999.

As I said, I don't wear funny hats and drive trains for a living. I'm not an engineer. I just fix things that engineers design.

Body as an antenna.......sounds simple to me but perhaps I am not being clear on what I am thinking about. I have 2 seperate antennas on my vhicle that use the body as a ground plane. Antennas work both ways. I am not talking about TXing, but RXing.

While going through a diagnostics seminar with a manufacturers rep we were discussing Lab Scopes and what you can read on a car's battery. He had some fairly nice equipment. Hooking up to nothing more than the battery leads he was able to isolate the ignition primary patterns. Not a bad read either. He descibed how his company had been working for some time on diagnostic equipment that needed NOTHING more than a battery hookup.

You see, the vehicle battery is the heart of the electrical system. All electrical circuts feed back to the battery in one way or another. The trick is isolating them. That's how the rep was looking at ignition feed by attaching to the battery. All major components and most minor are grounded by circuts that lead dirrectly back to the battery. Induce a spike on the ground circut and you can easily fry the PCM. Or the hall effect switch. Or the optical sensor. Or MAF sensor. Or the SMEC. Or the etc etc etc.

That's why my 2 meter mobile is fused on BOTH the ground and power feeds. It's also why the antenna lead is isolated from the body.

All it takes to shut down a modern vehicle is to remove a .2V peak off a digital signal. Maybe less.

Can a vehicle be shut down from an external RF signal without hurting the ocupants? Yup. 100% sure. It's happened too many times to say otherwise. Like I said...A problem just like that cost Audi millions of dollars. That was from plain old flourescent lights with nobody trying hard.

The words I am typing on this screen can be read from a block away with no physical connection to this building or a phone line. Thats not classified, it's so old it's HISTORY. It's done by RF signals.

Kill a vehicle? Give me a year and a modest budget and I'll be happy to build ya that widget. I have personally killed several vehicle computers just by touching the battery incorrectly. At a battery cable connected to a standard battery on a running vehicle I have recorded 75v spikes that made the engine stumble. Give me a bit of time and some cash and I'll figure out how to use the vehicles body as an antenna to feed a spike right to the electrical system, all from induced voltage via RF. If *I* can do it...........

-- Art Welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net), February 11, 1999.

I agree that direct stimulation of the vehicle electronics, like hooking up jumper cables or lightning strikes, can fry IC's. However, that does not mean that a relatively low-power RF transmitter, which is some distance away from the vehicle to boot, can induce the same phenomenon. I'm well aware of the effects of high RF fields on nearby electronics - I get paid to design such things and make sure they work. Ever work on the electronics next to a 25 megawatt radar array? I have, and apart from the usual shielding, there's nothing too fancy, no TEMPEST-level protection needed. But we aren't talking about Van Eck-effect reading of computer screens. Something more pertinent:

Case in point: the folks at the airbase where the 25 megawatt radar was located told me an interesting story while I was there. Seems an airman got drunk one night and drove out to the restricted area where this radar was sited (at the time it had no separate security fencing of its own). One of the guards saw his car way out there next morning, so they shut the radar down and went out... he was long dead and his car, a 1993 Toyota, which had stopped in a rut, was still idling in gear. He had driven in the dark to within 50 yards of the array.

That's right, killed him, didn't so much as blow a fuse in the car.

I say again - HERF guns - utter bulls**t.

Doubt I'll change your mind, but I've tried. If you want to attempt building one, no one's stopping you. Might be good for downing those pesky black helicopters.

Sparks

P.S. Ham ticket < EE, IEEE > ASE

-- Sparks (engineer@rf.com), February 11, 1999.

A 25 megawatt radar unit had no effect on a 93? toyota but kills the man. A 40 watt light fixture causes an Audi to run into a wall at 50 MPH but has no effect on a human.

Apples and oranges. We both know this.

I can key my 2 meter at 45 watts with the antenna 1 foot away from my 11 meter CB antenna with the CB radio turned on. Not a whisper of a problem from either rig.

Freq matters, energy matters, everything matters. I do not believe it can't be done. Just get it right in the details.

You know, I just might try and make a unit to shut down a car. Might be fun. Profitable too!

I pointed out the body/battery/electronics connection to display the path the energy can follow. What's needed next is the type and amplitude of RF signal to cause the desired effect.

Are you saying a current or signal cannot be induced through an RF generator/broadcast?

-- art welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net), February 11, 1999.

true story:

Once there were a couple of young soldiers at a large army installation in the United States. Said soldiers' job was to transport, maintain, and operate a small (for the time) microwave transmitter and it's associated power source, which were mounted on a jeep.

On a certain day, said soldiers discovered that they'd run over a nail as their convoy pulled out of the assembly area. By the time they'd changed the tire, the convoy was several miles down the road, so the young soldiers hurried to rejoin their comrades. Problem was that they took a shortcut through an MP speed trap. Got pulled over, got a ticket plus major hassle from the MP who was probably just bored.

As they pulled away, they noted MP driving back to his position behind some brush, where all one could see was the radio antenna coming up off the back of his jeep. Since the young soldiers in question were more than slightly ticked, they pulled up to the top of the next hill, threw a temporary grounding cable over to a chain link fence, aimed their microwave dish at the MP's antenna and held down the microwave TX (transmit) button until they heard the MP swearing and saw smoke coming out of the back of the jeep.

it ain't a pistol, but it can be effective. I'd imagine even more so now that everything is little silicon chips.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), February 12, 1999.

Wow Art, you've explained what's wrong with my car! I have a '96 Camaro z28 who's electronic system is all screwed up. The doors, the alarm system etc. is messed up and I have to readjust it everyday by depressing both lock/unlock buttons on the remote for 5 seconds. If I don't I can't start the car. Works ok for the day, but next morning same thing happens. I sent my car 5 times to the dealer with the same complaint. Each time they reset the damn remote and told me it's fixed.

What do you suggest I tell the service man next time I bring in the car? Are service technicians at tipical dealers able to fix this problem?

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 12, 1999.

As a visitor to an Air Force base, I saw a gigantic tressel that extended out from a high bluff. This tressel was built entirely of wood to the extent that no nails or other metal objects were incorporated in the structure. Bombers and other planes were rolled out to the end of this tressel and put into a simulated flight condition. All around this tressel were antenna structures of varying types covering various frequency ranges. They were aimed at the planes in the effort to find some areas of the structure or electronic circuitry that would resonate with the incoming rf and thereby burn it out. The thought being that any such problem areas would be corrected before the enemy or other circumstance found them in actual flight.

Any coil/capacitance in parallel will rock rf frequency back and forth between the elements. Depending on the strength of the incomming rf, and/or if there is no ability of the tuned circuit to dissapate or transfer the power out of itself, it will build up until something smokes. In many cases, it doesn't take very much at all.

Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), February 13, 1999.

See also ... Scary new weapons being developed thread ...

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000UZe

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), February 13, 1999.

Coincidently just last night, a friend of mine mentioned that they were having problems where certain circumstances were shutting off their vehicles engines. I was astounded. I hadn't talked to him about this thread and our conversation wasn't in this area until he brought it up out of left field.

In this maintenance vehicle, there is a pump run by the 12 volt electrical system. The engine speed is kept at a certain rpm by some kind of electronic governor on the pump. There is also a two way radio on the truck. Both operate perfectly by themselves. When the pump is running and the 2-way transmitter is keyed, the engine stops instantly. It is not a fault in the 12 volt system but apparently the rf is affecting the electronic timing of the governor and thereby the engine speed.

Just knowing that it does happen, seems to make it clear as to (perhaps) how it can happen. It is eye opening.

When you mix two rf frequencies together, you get a third. This is the principal in most radios. The received station frequency is mixed with an internal variable oscillator. This produces an intermediate frequency. This i.f. is always the same frequency and for selectivity purposes, there are several internal circuits that tune out all other frequencies. Now, if two transmitters are in the same general area and they are transmitting on two seperate frequencies that happen to be seperated by the exact i.f. frequency difference of your receiver, the i.f. gets produced right in the front end of the receiver and it passes both stations right through the i.f., to the speaker, as if they were one. In fact, neither were likely supposed to get through at all as your receiver would not necessarily be tuned to either one of them. This phenomenon happens only when they are both keying their respective transmitters, thereby producing the i.f. frequency of your receiver.

Similarly, if a receiver is receiving a particular station, that station could be just as easily thrown off the i.f. frequency if the local oscillator were overcome by another incomming frequency. The intruder frequency would beat with the desired station and produce something other than an i.f. which would then *not* pass through the rest of the receiver. The desired station would be effectively killed.

I'm not familiar with automobile computer operations but we're sure these computers operate in some rf range. I'm not even sure that it even makes a difference. The frequencies we're talking about are more likely of a timing nature rather than carrying analog information but they still can be mixed and changed. In fact, digital square waves are more easily mixed and divided than analog waves.

How about a digitally modulated, or keyed, analog rf beam pointed at your car, tuned to and received by an (unintentional) built in tuned circuit within the cars computer. Tuned circuits are everywhere and they are produced as randomly as hangers in a closet. Radio stations have been heard from tooth fillings and furnaces. The received rf would be turned on and off at a rate that would affect the normal on- off signals being carried within the computer. It might reverse the polarity of the square waves or lengthen them or otherwise mess them up. The effect of arbitrarily changing the frequency, polarity and/or lengths of the pulses running your automobile would certainly not allow it to continue to run smoothly.

Any additional thoughts or corrections are certainly welcome.

Me.

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), February 16, 1999.