Cecil Moore wrote in
et:

Stefan Wolfe wrote:
One thing that works real well is to transmit near the x-ray radar
band where you have privileges. The traffic may slow down a bit as
you set off the radar detectors :-)

A number of years ago (I forget exactly what year) a
ham friend of mine discovered that he could cause a
new Cadillac to stall simply by keying his transmitter
as the Cadillac was passing his camper. That design
problem was probably fixed rather quickly.

Back in the '70s I was working on a project that saw me reading papers on
the effects of EMR on various things. Amongst the papers was one dealing
with the susceptibility of the electronic anti-skid technology introduced
on heavy transport vehicles to meet (then) newer more stingent braking
distances. The braking systems were susceptible to ingress of RF,
resulting in wheel lockups. You can imagine the results of a 22 wheeler
at highway speed when a chook alongside comes up with "Breaker, Breaker,
any taker?" and locks up most of the wheels on the transport. I read
other papers on rear wheel lockups in a certain brand of passenger
vehicle due to RF induced downshift of the (electronically controlled)
automatic transmission at highway speeds.

The EMC issue seems better understood by vehicle manufacturers today,
though you still hear of RF triggered airbag deployments from time to
time.

I won't go into the papers on effects on aircraft, some of you may fly
from time to time! A paper on propagation of EM waves through rectangular
slots in thin sheet metal looks innocuous enough until you realise that
it is talking about an aircraft window (in the days when almost all
aircraft had a metal skin).

Owen