Originally Posted by Captain Smithy
Yes, the birds will feel the heatup of tissue caused by the radio waves; although with today's low-powered Wx Radars the birds would have to be pretty close to feel it... probably so close that you'll have hit them anyway. Different story however with older, high-powered antennae ...
I always thought it was more of a legend, but you're probably right, birds are probably far more sensitive to small tissue temperature changes than we are, and even we can walk into a kitchen and feel that an electric hot plate has been left on.
Even so it's not much use to the birds... since a radar scans, they'd feel a blip every second or so, not enough to D/F and take avoiding action, but maybe enough to upset them. Now whether you want that, remains a wide-open question.
There's not much difference between today's Wx radars and older ones, in the sense that the
average power (which is what matters here) is not very different.
.... or military hardware.
You're right there. But the question is the same, do you want to upset the birds?
CJ