Ok I played with my microwave oven and went to the 5th floor of the Palomar (sneaking a ride with a resident in the security locked elevator) and asked someone if I could make a call on their cell phone. All of this was done while holding my Real Goods tri-field meter that measures down to 0.01 mw/cm^2 of microwave radiation. The maximum reading on the tri-field meter is 1 mw/cm^2. This is expected to be a very crude device, not expected to give a reading that actually corresponds closely to the numbers printed on the meter, but it can be used at a specific frequency once a source of known intensity is obtained, such as a cell phone.

What I found was this:

My 1200W microwave oven reads 0.5-1+ mw/cm^2 within 1 foot of the closed door while it is operating. I put a chocolate candy in a cup to see if it would "melt my brain" just outside of the microwave oven. No such luck. After 3 minutes on full power, the chocolate, and presumably also my brain, did not melt.

I went to the 5th floor of the Palomar and looked around just outside of the elevator. The tri-field meter read zero. Note that this is an area where the radiation from the antennas is expected to be 10X stronger than at the sidewalk, assuming there is no attenuation of the radiation due to the walls of the building.

I then borrowed someone's cell phone to see what it would make the tri-field meter do when I made a call. The tri-field meter registered 0.01-0.05mw/cm^2. The person claimed that theirs was not a digital phone (which emits less radiation than an analog phone) but it looked like a modern phone. So it may have been digital.

It is not suprising then that the tri-field meter did not read anything on the 5th floor of the Palomar. It would have to be a factor of 72 times more sensitive before it would pick up the radiation comming from the antennas, even measuring from the 5th floor, if my crude calibrations are accurrate. Also the antennas may not really emit much radiation if no one in the area is making a call. This test was done at 9AM on a Sunday.

Marilyn Garret has a much more sensitive device for measuring microwave radiation. It goes off all the time whenever she is anywhere in the downtown area. She does not own a computer (for obvious reasons) so she is not privy to this discusson.

As for "hostility" I would suggest that words such as "hole" and "Chicken Little" are hostile enough. I did not attack anyone with my post. I simply asked that the owners be asked to follow the local and federal laws, lax as they are. If they have the studies to back up the safety of their installation then they should present them at the next city council meeting. We will see.

Also, from what I have read it seems that the blood brain barrier is grossly affected by as little as 2 hours of exposure to an analog cell phone. It is not unreasonable to expect some residents of a place such as the Palomar to develop headaches over a considerable period of time (a few days or weeks say).