Thread: communication equipment after EMP....... faraday cages

Quick questions for you electronic experts regarding communication equipment after an EMP...

1.Can walkies talkies, emergency radios, ham radios, etc. still work after an emp or will they be fried as well? or can they work if they were protected?

2. can you make a cheap, simple faraday cage to protect this stuuff? anyone have a favorite you tube?

3. is it possible to protect vehicles? can older vehicles still work since they do not have all the electronic crap?

All excellent questions! The only one I can address is older vehicles. IF it runs on points without any solid state equipment, your good. "JustJim" brought up a book titled "One Second After" earlier in this thread I believe. You can find more info doing a google search also.

Originally Posted by Barefoot343

Quick questions for you electronic experts regarding communication equipment after an EMP...

1.Can walkies talkies, emergency radios, ham radios, etc. still work after an emp or will they be fried as well? or can they work if they were protected?

2. can you make a cheap, simple faraday cage to protect this stuuff? anyone have a favorite you tube?

3. is it possible to protect vehicles? can older vehicles still work since they do not have all the electronic crap?

Here is a really good discussion on this We are TOTALLY screwd, because when SHTF, we will have NO rights

I'm sure you know, but don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see on youtube when it comes to the faraday cage.

Good info here> Electromagnetic pulse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lights Out is another book that tells the story of surviving after a massive EMP strike across America. I don't know if I'd call it "action packed" but it wasn't a terrible read. It does talk about specific vehicles and what not that were not effected etc.

Amazon.com: Lights Out eBook: David Crawford: Kindle Store

Downloaded from the internet over three million times, this exciting, action-packed, survival story is finally available in book form. Lights Out chronicles the challenges of Mark “Karate Man” Turner when the lights go out over most of the free world. He must find in himself the ability to unite his family, friends, and neighbors if any of them are to survive the harsh reality that everyday life becomes when the veneer of civilization is stripped away.

Seems like some devices will survive because of location or SHL. Imagine; no internet, no stock market, no TV, no bills,...Holy smoke! Nothing
to do but lay around and play with your kid's mama. Imagine the birth spurt after the country gets squared away again!
P.S.
Military gear is designed to withstand EMP so they will be ready to meet the Godless b..tards while we are all helpless behind the barracades!

I think all preparedness should assume the worst and that includes no power. There are so many scenarios that it's impossible to develop just one plan. It's well rumored and believed that the Donner party ate the dead, and sometimes they didn't quite wait for them to die before finishing them off.

I start with this. When the settlers arrived at their destination and began to homestead, they had what little was left in the wagon, a team, some old time seeds, some hand tools, attacking Indians, and a strong will. Not all survived by a long shot but they had a plan and they worked it. Many died of disease or other issues such as childbirth and a general lack of modern medicine. A simple wound could cause gangrene.

Then there are the Revolutionary and Civil War people to study. How did those who survived make it before the industrial age?

If I plan for the worst, then things can't get worse than that.

great replies, but back to the questions...

1.Can walkies talkies, emergency radios, ham radios, etc. still work after an emp or will they be fried as well? or can they work if they were protected?

They will be fried unless you protect them. Google Faraday Cages / Blankets or How to proect from EMP. There's lot of information out there. The internet is a wonderful thing.

Here is an interesting link that tells you how to make one.

http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2010/02/h...nics-from.html

I agree tangent, the hard part about the net though is sorting out the hundreds of videos and more importantly the fact from fiction, that was why I was hoping folks with a background in this could chime in.

WOW, that is an interesting blog, "Infedels bloggers alliance"?!

theres a video out there that shows you how to protect from emp with an aluminum garbage can etc. check it out

Just how big would you want your personal faraday cage to be? Wouldn't walkie talkies, batteries, and a small solar panel fit into an ammo can lined with foam, wood or carpet? If you need something bigger, a job-site tool box sounds like a good option since it's ready made and can be locked.

I would think a lead lined ammo can would protect them. Would it not?

Originally Posted by coyoteman5

I would think a lead lined ammo can would protect them. Would it not?

The lead is unnecessary if the ammo can is steel. A Faraday Cage is to be constructed of "a conductive material" like steel or even copper screen.

Originally Posted by coyoteman5

I would think a lead lined ammo can would protect them. Would it not?

I don't know about a lead liner, but some kind of liner to make sure the objects inside do not touch the outer metal would be necessary.

I am of the opinion that battery powered consumer grade electronics is a toss-up as to what will happen, anything plugged into a large antenna(HF) or into the electrical grid without protection(and maybe with) will either be fried or offline for a while. VHF/UHF walkie talkies will likely work fine. Computers I don't know about. EMP interaction is largely induced by long wavelength conductors such as the power grid, which was primarily what was knocked out by early observations of EMP(or similar) activity(think large solar events like the Sept 1859 flare that knocked out telegraphs, or the Starfish Prime weapon test that knocked out streetlights and a microwave telephone relay in Hawaii 900 miles away). The concern with microelectronics is that the small wires inside an integrated circuit won't be able to withstand those levels of energy, potentially damaging not only the substrate but the bonding wires that connect the chip to the external pins as well. The real question is will they pick up enough energy to be damaged or destroyed if they are not attached to the power grid or other long lengths of wire(think ethernet cables running through your house, your DSL or cable modem is plugged into miles of wire, perhaps even as short as a printer cable).
I think a lot of it has to do with how the EMP is generated, and I consider the threat to be highly overstated. It would be difficult or impossible for anyone but a major power to put a device either into orbit or into a suborbital position still capable of generating a proper EMP(Starfish Prime detonated at a height of 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean) - a disguised orbital device seems more likely, as launching an ICBM over your enemy is going to produce a counterattack that will wipe you out. Terrorists just don't have these kinds of capabilities - the chances of them obtaining a useable nuclear device are alarming, but they are much more likely to use some sort of dirty bomb or easily produced chem/bio weapon, if they bother with WMD's at all. WMD's are expensive and complicated, and terrorist tactics typically require low cost and simplicity - think cell-phone activated IED's in Iraq or Afghanistan, home-made rockets and suicide bombers in Israel and the like. 9/11 was an unusually complex attack.
That's not to say that EMP protection is not important, as there are natural sources - lightning strikes and solar storms. Solar storms aren't likely to physically damage electronics, although the power grid is vulnerable to collapse, and lightning is highly localized in effect, and if it hits EMP is likely the last of your worries.

In order to work, it must be well grounded. A faraday cage works by converting EMP into current and providing the shortest route possible. A metal garbage can that is grounded is about the easiest way to go. The contains must be insulated from the metal of the can to be protected.

A ammo can with a really good seal and a liner so nothing touches the container will work just fine, just look it up as ammo can Faraday cages on Google.

"Sent via the Skyrim messenger service"

Virtually evey home already has a Faraday cage; a microwave oven. They are designed to keep microwaves in so they will also keep them out. I have tested the theory by putting my cell phone in the microwave, shutting the door, and then calling it using my landline. It didnt ring because once the door was shut it didnt get a beam. You can get non-functioning microwave ovens for free at any metal recycling location, or at the dump.

Originally Posted by CatCow

....I consider the threat to be highly overstated. It would be difficult or impossible for anyone but a major power to put a device either into orbit or into a suborbital position still capable of generating a proper EMP(Starfish Prime detonated at a height of 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean) - a disguised orbital device seems more likely, as launching an ICBM over your enemy is going to produce a counterattack that will wipe you out. Terrorists just don't have these kinds of capabilities - the chances of them obtaining a useable nuclear device are alarming, but they are much more likely to use some sort of dirty bomb or easily produced chem/bio weapon, if they bother with WMD's at all. WMD's are expensive and complicated, and terrorist tactics typically require low cost and simplicity - think cell-phone activated IED's in Iraq or Afghanistan, home-made rockets and suicide bombers in Israel and the like. 9/11 was an unusually complex attack.
That's not to say that EMP protection is not important, as there are natural sources - lightning strikes and solar storms. Solar storms aren't likely to physically damage electronics, although the power grid is vulnerable to collapse, and lightning is highly localized in effect, and if it hits EMP is likely the last of your worries.

Then you fully discount the repeated rumors that Iran bought and smuggled a couple of nuclear devices out of the former Soviet Union (it was Belarus or one of those mini Baltic states), and that when the present difficulties ramped up, their notification to the US that they would send 2 warships to cruise full time off the East Coast of the US is a bluff and that these are not connected events at all? Do you not think that statements from various connected people like Gingrich who keep bringing up EMP attack on the US, and the United States strong diplomatic pressure to stop an Israeli attack on Iran and to publicly avow that we are little more than Sgt Schultz to the Israelis Col Klink (I KNOW KNUTHINNGGGGG!), are not connected?

For myself, I don't know why not put my emergency radio and unused electronics into a metal garbage can in the unlikely event we get a huge sunspot or an Iranian-North Korean (or whatever) EMP. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Most of us may already have a Faraday cage in the house that's full of non-electronics. It's called a gun safe. Maybe need to trade some ammo out for some electronics in:-)