INTRODUCTION

A vast reservoir of technical data on UFOs lies in the published reports of witnesses. And it can be tapped by the
careful study of details in single, well-documented events or in the composite from many similar cases. Validity of
the data is assured when the reports contain technical information that could not possibly have been known to the
witnesses. Ironically, testimony from simple, ordinary folk can therefore be the most valuable. It is essential to focus
attention upon the phenomenon reported rather than the identity of the witness or other diversionary issues. When a
UFO produces some observable effect in our environment, it should be amenable to scientific analysis; that is, it
should have a scientific explanation. Thus, competent investigation of UFO cases will usually disclose the exact
mechanism that produces the observed effect, or at least identify one that might be responsible.
All observed effects of UFOs, except purely mechanical processes and artifacts, carry implications of
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electromagnetic and gravitational fields in their vicinity. Technical studies of individual effects can establish limits
to the parameters of those fields. So detailed studies of the wide range of effects should lead to a significant
understanding of the UFO field. Limitations deduced from one effect may well be different from those of another,
and still another. By overlaying these various constraints, specific parameters of the UFO fields should become
progressively more apparent.
Previous studies by the author and others have converged upon microwave radiation from UFOs as a candidate
cause of many of their effects. So a general discussion here can lay a foundation for understanding what microwaves
are, how they are described, and, in succeeding sections, how they can interact with people to produce a variety of
responses. Microwave radiation is that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that lies in the frequency range of

* James McCampbell: A University of California degree in engineering physics led to wide-ranging career in research and
design in the nuclear field and engineering management, including the Space Environment Simulator at NASA Houston,
environmental protection for the Alaskan pipeline, and work for the Solar Energy Research Institute. Finally in 1980 he
established his own marketing and consulting company.
UFO involvement: As might be expected from such a background, his approach to the UFO phenomenon has been consistently
pragmatic: “Civilizations presently unknown to mankind may exist in some extra-dimensional sense from which UFOs penetrate
into our realm of existence; however, they fully partake of our physical reality while they are under our observation. As they
certainly interact with the physical environment, details of such interaction should be studied from a scientific point of view.
Explanations should not be sought in the realms of religion, psychology, biology, paranormal, or the occult, though these are
valid lines of inquiry as corollaries to UFO sightings.” He has been MUFON’s Director of Research since 1975.
Publications: Ufology, New Insights From Science and Common Sense (1973) is not only an expression of the above position, but
is widely respected as one of the most constructive contributions to the scientific UFO literature. This has been supplemented by
numerous articles in MUFON UFO Journal and elsewhere.

James McCampbell
300,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 cycles per second — abbreviated to 300,000 MHz (megacycles) to 1,000 MHz.
Corresponding wavelengths are 10 to 0.1 cm. The specific frequency in a given event should be known. Next, the
manner of delivery is important, whether continuous or pulsed, and if pulsed, at what repetition rate and what pulse
width. It is easily seen that a strong but very short pulse followed by a relatively long interval before the next would
deliver only a small amount of power. Thus one speaks of peak powers, average powers, and duty cycles. It need not
be difficult to visualize a description of pulsed microwaves. Consider microwaves of 1,000 MHz being pulsed at 100
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Hz having a peak power of 300 milliwatts per square centimeter (mW/cm1 ) etc. but an average power of only 2
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mW/cm . A further concept to be encountered is that of threshold, namely the lowest power level at which any given
effect takes place.
Physical effects of UFOs upon people can hardly receive a comprehensive treatment in a brief section, still less
those responses which appear to be psychological and even parapsychological. They have not been touched upon
here, but there is a mass of data that should be examined, particularly since the possibility exists that they may
actually be only physical responses to radiation.