BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY; Turning a Microwave Into a TV Transmitter
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   March 15, 1989
   By JOHN MARKOFF

   LEAD: Electronics engineers are forever tinkering.

   Electronics engineers are forever tinkering.

   Consider  the  March  issue  of  RF  Design,  a  technical journal for
   communications  engineers.  The  journal,  based  in Englewood, Colo.,
   contains  a  detailed  article  that  describes how a skilled engineer
   could  alter  a  standard  kitchen microwave oven to create a powerful
   250-watt transmitter for amateur television broadcasting frequencies.

   Written  by  David  Pacholok  of  Creative  Electronics Consultants in
   Sleepy  Hollow,  Ill.,  as  an  entry  in the magazine's design awards
   contest, the article received an award as an example of a project that
   shows innovation, engineering design and documentation.

   The  author  writes  that  the  project's  goal was to create a simple
   high-power  microwave  transmitter  for  less  than  $200,  with parts
   readily available from consumer electronics supply houses.

   The  heart of the design is a plan that permits the oven power source,
   a  magnetron  tube,  to  be ''tamed down'' to provide power for the TV
   transmitter.  A  circuit  called a modulator, which controls power and
   frequency, is placed where the food would go.

   The editors of RF Design stress that this is a project to be attempted
   only  by  a  skilled  engineer -not a radio amateur. Leaking microwave
   radiation can be extremely hazardous.

   Also,  the  Federal  Communications  Commission,  which  regulates the
   broadcast  industry,  including  broadcast  transmissions,  might have
   something to say about such a transmitter, too.