Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by 1GreatAmerican on May 25, 2012 at 8:54am

As far as vehicles go any car or truck 1979 and older will be your best bet. I deal in classic cars so naturally I always have a older vehicle or two parked at my place. My advice is to always be prepared, it never hurts to take a few precautions. You should have spare parts on hand with your vehicle. Parts such as distributor cap, rotor button, points, starter, alternator, basically all electric parts under the hood. I have a 68 Ford pickup and I place my parts in a fully enclosed and insulated metal box along with some tools. My truck has a manual transmission which can be a plus. I recommend having a generator not an alternator on hand as well. With a generator you don't need a battery to start and run the vehicle. Whatever you do, do not use LEDs of any kind on you car or truck. The strength of the EMP will be a factor. Assume that you will have to replace most under hood electrical parts and possibly the battery. As with new vehicles once the computer is fried you're done. The only way to protect your newer vehicle is to completely isolate all of the electronics components and wiring. Keep in mind the "Faraday" protocol when it comes to all electrical parts. It's not an easy task but in the end it would be worth it. If you can, I would recommend building a well grounded Faraday cage in your garage. It's a good idea to have a BOV in the garage ready to move out just incase. 

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Permalink Reply by 1GreatAmerican on May 27, 2012 at 1:46pm

What specifics would you like to cover...anyone? 

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Permalink Reply by American Girl says NO CRACKPOTuS on May 29, 2012 at 4:20pm

This may sound stupid, but here goes: If I wanted to make a Faraday Cage, say for my computer, how can I protect it while I am using it? An EMP won't be announced will it? How will we know when to store our things if we don't know when, or if, it will occur???

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Permalink Reply by Chancy Yardbird on May 29, 2012 at 4:34pm

This E-how is a good start on how to harden ourselves against an EMP event. Beyond that I recommend that people study how Jet fighters and other command aircraft manage onboard inflight surge and EMP weapons surges like the The Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, with a project name of "Nightwatch"

http://www.ehow.com/how_7461819_harden-against-emp-attack.html

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Permalink Reply by American Girl says NO CRACKPOTuS on May 31, 2012 at 1:43pm

Thanks Chancy; you have such a wealth of knowledge...it blows my mind!!! I appreciate the link!

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Permalink Reply by Chancy Yardbird on July 31, 2012 at 12:28pm

HEADS UP!!!

Today, July 30 2012, there are more than two but a couple of things going on are tooo coincidental not to raise our awareness a notch.

FIRST, most here know that the so called cyber security bill is now under debate in the senate. It will if approved among other things restrict the magazine capacity of we the people's arms on a federal scale not state law..

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/senate-injects-health-care-gun-...
It's obvious that there is a real threat to our electrical infrastructure and security should be a concern I believe this bill over reaches its purpose and will contribute to infrastructure calamity rather than protect.

SECOND,,Today and yesterday, there has been two instances of a major electrical energy system collapse in India. Twice in two days, affecting more than 680 million people—double the population of the U.S.—and causing business losses estimated to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444405804577560413178...

Does anyone here see anything that may point to an EMP event, either testing or an attack???

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Permalink Reply by Chancy Yardbird on September 17, 2012 at 5:33pm

Hi again. I wanted to add a little more now about EMP, High voltage and what the Faraday cage oncept is about. In this video, you will hear about a worker and machine or cages being at equal "potential" or voltage. in electrical theory, Voltage (potential) can be thoughtr of as pressure PSI trying to push flow or current to ground or its own level (potential) The wand in the video must be used to equalize the two cages slowly. sudden may not kill but couuld probably raise the hair on your arms or damage your cell phone. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dKCWAL...

BTW I retired awhile back from doing similar but this isn't me. I don't fear heights Nor electricity but I respect them beyond explaination. I am also safe sound and still happily married to the most agreeable woman I ever met.

Go ahead though and fear it if you must to be safe. I believe you would be wiser to respect it and understand it well. recognize the danger and your instincts . Prepare now and act on your learned and trained abilities rather than knee jerk reactions to everything.

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Permalink Reply by Jaro on September 17, 2012 at 6:05pm

What I'd like to know, is how to ressurect a car that was hit with an EMP. I guess you'd bypass all the electronics and use an electronic ignition block, and somehow have it fire when the piston's near the top of its travel. And what about fuel injection, is that automatic or electronic also?

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Permalink Reply by Chancy Yardbird on September 17, 2012 at 6:35pm

to ressurect a car that was hit with an EMP assuming you had or found or built your own spare parts that weren't hit, you simply replace the electronic parts that were damaged/destroyed. OR rebuild/revamp to more secure electromechanical technology of old. Diesel is well thought of.

While no mesh jacket can be guaranteed 100% emp proof. the best cure is the faraday prevention. Automobile electronics can be hardened to take major hits just as planes are hardened to take lightning strikes in flight. No guarntees but we do all we can do and then do something else huh.

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Permalink Reply by Will Beattie on September 18, 2012 at 11:53am

Just a quickie. 1. purchase a steel shipping container (the kind used in shipping large objects). 2. Place it on some land. 3. Drill holes in each side. 4. place bolts in each of the holes. 5. attach HEAVY wire (the size of battery jumper cables)to each bolt. 6. dig a hole a couple feet deep close to where the bolts are located. 7. Pound a ground rod into bottom of hole. 8. attach free end of HEAVY wire to grounding rod. 9. pour some rock salt into hole and cover with dirt. 10. Place anything with electrical components you wish to save into shipping container. That's it.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob McDermott on September 18, 2012 at 3:36pm

The largest hole dictates the lowest frequency it will be shielded against. You can calculate this based on a full wave - size = 300/frequency where size is in meters and frequency is in MHz. So if you wanted shielding for 3Ghz and below that would be size = 300/3000 or 1/10 meter (10 cm or about 2 feet). This includes the doors and everything else at the time the pulse is fired. If you do not have a "man trap" type entrance system and your doors are open at the time it goes off you have a big hole. You may also want to apply some low resistance spring type material like used on computer case covers for the doors to ensure they seal against the container itself. By seal I mean in an electromagnetic sense not an air tight sense.

The higher the frequency the thinner the shielding can be. Or conversely the lower the frequency the thicker it must be. Additionally the higher the power level of the EM wave the thicker it must be.

Steel is a lossy material, particularly if rusted. You will also find that the alloy is not exactly constant throughout. This means that there are differences in electrical potential. If you put something metal in a microwave you will see sparks. The sparks are because there is a different in electrical potential across two points and the energy, when met by resistance in the metal, jumps to bridge the gap. I would expect to see a steel metal box arc in a similar fashion should a strong enough pulse go off in its vicinity. This can cause fires, fry equipment it is supposed to protect, kill or injure people in the vicinity, etc.

Ideally you want a 0 ohm path to ground, and a large enough path to be able to sink all the energy so it does not have any issues getting there. 0 ohm is impossible unless you have a superconductor, however getting as close as possible with a uniform impedance at the given frequency is important.

The frequency is also critical. When you have a DC current the entire metal object will conduct. When you go into AC you get what is known as the "skin effect". Only the surface is actually used and not the center. The higher the frequency the less of the core is used. One would need to calculate this into their equations for suitable shielding, unless they were just going to guess and hope that it works.

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Permalink Reply by DudeDiligence (CO1stMtnDiv) on December 6, 2012 at 12:30pm

Forgive me for I know very little on the topic... But the depth if your grounding tod may vary from region to region, as one wants to contact the moisture inherent in the ground for good dispersal. Feel free to correct

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