When I worked in radar, the people in the transmitter lab had little, hand held, microwave detectors as an additional layer of safety. If a wave guide hadn't been assembled correctly and was leaking microwaves, they would be warned before they were cooked. This was 1980. Such gadgets should be very cheap today.<p>Given the history, with the Great Seal Bug<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)</a><p>I would expect plenty of monitoring; it is cheap and easy.
We appear to be right back to the original explanation, an exposure to high-energy microwaves. I'd be curious to know if this is clearly an attack, or if this 'Frey effect' could happen accidentally because of nearby microwave transmission or similar?
What about misused or defective radio equipment ? I guess that they have powerful microwave sat equipment, in there. This is a more reasonable explanation then mysterious "death ray" that, anyway, should be detectable and traceable with the right equipment, in case someone want to prove its existence. Moreover, what's the logic in creating a gratuitous diplomatic incident and possibly cause reprisals against the responsible ? IMHO , this story is the perfect click bait so nobody want to consider more logic and simple explanations.
What I don't get about this explanation is that I'd expect high-profile embassies to be at least monitored for radio activity or even shielded against it.<p>But maybe I'm just expecting too much vigilance here.
1. The article is a copy of the original: <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-suggest-us-embassies-were-hit-with-high-power-microwaves-heres-how-the-weapons-work-151730" rel="nofollow">https://theconversation.com/scientists-suggest-us-embassies-...</a> . I wonder if scitechdaily is just a content farm or if they had a license to copy that content.<p>2. This Vanity Fair article believes it's mass hysteria: <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behind-the-havana-embassy-mystery" rel="nofollow">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/the-real-story-behin...</a>
I’ve heard the Great Seal Bug described as being activated by microwaves, and wonder if all these embassies and offices were riddled with similar bugs.<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)</a>