I see your point . . .

I was considering a minor rupture in the waveguide (never, never touch one of these!). This is the most dangerous part of a microwave system, concentrating a signal to such a level that it will cook you. As you stated, though, it would be a boiling type of cook, not a frying.

Looking at the birds again, and reviewing the telephonic interruptions that are complained of on the posted page, I would have to reiterate a shorted ground again, but still possibly a short that has crossed the radio station’s output, the building’s power supply, and the building’s telecommunications networks, and like as not would involve the tower, as it would be susceptible to lightening strikes, and this is where the birds are likely dropping from. Then again, it might not involve the tower at all, but it does involve high voltage, and it does involve the telephones.

Two things:
1. A fellow I worked with at the SEEF in Ft Huachuca, AZ, leaned down on an active waveguide, placing his hand over what turned out to be a pinhole in the tube. The propagated signal took a right-angle turn, using his radius as a waveguide, and blew a hole out his elbow. He managed to get a stainless steel radius out of the deal.

2. Pigeons in Columbus, OH. Walking downtown here, it’s not uncommon to come across a piece of bird, a wing or a leg. It has nothing at all to do with faulty communications systems though. We tend to forget about their presence, but when it’s brought up, we kind of proud to have a number of peregrine falcons enjoying the high country of our skyline.

Dan