Man Made Ball Lightning

This may sound like a modern, state-of-the-art possibility, but some sources say its been around for nearly 50 years.
As far back as October, 1960 an entire article on man made ball lightning was written in The New Scientist by John Lear.
Apparently this research was being directed by Donald J. Ritchie of the Bendix Corporation. Electron tube oscillators or radar transmitters (!) could be employed. When it came to radars, the size of the antenna or mirror focusing the beam had to be greater than the length of the electromagnetic wave.
A "1.000 mgc frequency wave" used with an antenna dish several meters in diameter would cause ball lightning several meters away.
From what I can gather, creating ball lightning would require TWO radar dishes, their antennae aimed so that the waves from each radar collide at a distant point in the sky.
Also around 1960 , in the Soviet Union, Professor Georgi Ll'ch Babat published a paper entitled " A Star Ignited By Physics." It describes a method of creating continuous bright light above a city. In order to pull that off, Georgi outlines the following scenario:

Two radar dishes , each greater than 15 feet in diameter would cause a one centimeter wave to produce ball lightning one half mile up in the air.

Not too long ago on that interesting show "MythBusters," they tackled the myth that microwave ovens could create ball lightning. The myth was "busted." One wonders what would have happened if they'd have used radar dishes instead.
It's not like you can walk into Circuit City and buy a couple radars, but I did read somewhere about how you can make a radar out of a television set. So maybe it's not microwave ovens that can create ball lightning, but T.V. sets!