Protect Your Electronics From an EMP

survivalnewsonline.com ^ | 5/6/2014 | Unknown

[rktman]

Electromagnetic pulses occur at various frequencies depending on how they’re caused, and you need various strategies to protect your electronics.

[USCG SimTech]

Get an old microwave and put susceptible items in it. Get several if necessary. The older ones are larger though..................

The microwave will work as a Faraday cage ONLY IF:

1. It is plugged in and is 3-wire back to the box with a certified green wire ground that is good.

2. The circuit breaker for that microwave is thrown OPEN so no outside line from the pole reaches the microwave.

The ground wire is ALWAYS connected to the box ground, which is connected to the two (hopefully up to code, 2) grounding rods outside regardless of the breaker position.

[Mariner]

This will work fine if you're over 100 miles away.

Otherwise you may as well use the foil for a hat.

Of particular note: What good is any of this stuff to be protected if EVERY electrical/electronic device for a thousand miles is fried?

[Georgia Girl 2]

I have read many articles on the subject and it appears that if you have all of your electronics unplugged and turned off most will survive an EMP. If your car is in the garage and grounded it will likely start afterwards. But the grid may be down so fill er up.

[taxcontrol]

I agree, though most switching centers are fairly large blocks of concrete, at least some of the old ones are. While not as effective as a Faraday cage, concrete does help to mitigate the strength of the pulse and might be enough to prevent damage if the center has a bit of distance from ground zero

[China Clipper]

... If your car is in the garage and grounded it will likely start afterwards

How do you "Ground your car"?

With some kind of metal strap? Curious minds want to know....

[Red Badger]

.......or you could just ground the chassis to a ground rod yourself without the house wiring even being necessary..................

[Freeping Since 2001]

An ordinary old galvanized steel trash can does the job at a very low cost per cubic foot. 55 gallon drum is good, too.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Just hang a piece of chain from the bumper to the ground is what I read.

[Alas Babylon!]

Yup. I was going to say so, too. Infrastructure is key. Many here think consumer or client electronics are the be all of end all, but without servers, switches, routers, and other devices, all of the consumer end is worthless junk. Well, maybe not totally worthless; you could play games that are local apps or take pictures, but then you could just get a Nintendo DS for that.

SVR4? Hmmm... I think I used to have that server!

[Alas Babylon!]

When The solar storm of 1859, also known as the Carrington Event occurred, miles of telegraph wire became so charged that telegraph operators could send messages without a power source, and in some cases were badly shocked and fires were started.

Depending on how the overall wiring plan and grounding is arranged, some devices in a building could be terminal ends for the EMP. Bang!

[Marcella]

You can believe whoever wrote that OR you can believe the man I spoke with a few months ago who actually worked for the Defense Department for years and worked along side the man who is now heading that for government now. I can look up his name if you wish due to it is his name on the document as chairman of the group of scientists who came to the same conclusion as him and the man I talked with. I have twice put that report on here when EMPs were brought up.

The man I talked with and his friend who is now in charge of our defense against EMPs were given the job by Department of Defense to figure out what the damage would be for every type of EMP and design a method for protecting our large weapon systems (really large - can you say nuclear and missile systems, plus others he could not mention). They did that and protected those weapons that required an electrical connection to the grid. So, if an enemy tries to kill us with an EMP, we can kill them back (credit to Ron White comedian for "kill them back"). At least we could if freaking Hussein wasn't the president.

No matter the origin of an EMP, if you are within the area affected and have a device plugged into the grid it will fry. However, if it is a nuclear EMP it will only affect the range of the blast. The higher up the blast occurs, the more land area is included, but again, only those items plugged in will fry. Out of the range of the blast, nothing plugged in is fried. Such a blast on the west coast won't fry anything out of range, so it would cover part of the US, but not as far as the east coast.

Autos will not fry - if they are running at the time, some may shut down but when started again they are fine. Trucks/autos/ambulances, were all tested and a few stopped then started again.

I specifically asked him about planes that are flying at the time of an EMP - he said they will not drop out of the sky - they may hesitate but the pilot can recover the plane easily. The aluminum body helps protect the plane.

Again, there is no one who knows more about EMPs and damage than these two men - I believe what they say as they have lived it. Faraday cages are not necessary, but go ahead and build one if it makes you happy.

[Kartographer]

Looks like some good information Marcella. For sure it is 1000% times better then the FReepers who have posted to me that there is no such thing as EMP at all!

[VAarea]

Exactly. Just make sure that the lid seals reasonably well (which it should). For good measure every couple of years or so swab the mating surfaces with a contact enhancer such as CRC-226 spray (available at Home Depot).

[Marcella]

I learned a lot from this man. We were on to the danger of EMPs to our weapons systems years ago - 15 years and more - the public just wasn't informed about it. These two men worked in secret due to the importance of their mission to protect our weapons systems. They didn't care about our coffee pots or our TV, they were given the task of making sure we could fight back if attacked. Some of their work was done in New Mexico - does that sound familiar? That is one place where we develop new weapons. Another place was in Huntsville, Alabama, at NASA.

There is so much that goes on in the Department of Defense that we don't know is happening. I was glad to find out our major weapons systems are protected from any type of EMP. Now, if we just had a Commander in Chief who had guts, give me George Bush any day to be that person, however, I would prefer Dick Cheney, I love that guy as he doesn't put up with s-—.

[BigpapaBo]

I’d like to add..
The Starfish Prime high altitude EMP test that was done in the 60’s.
Seems that the large, W49 warhead (1.4mt’s) which was detonated over 250 miles up, caused quite a bit of “disturbances” over a widespread area.
Also
Our electronics warfare aircraft (EA-6B and F-18 Growlers) can and DO effectivley shut down unprotected electronics as they fly in their operating areas. Usually radars and guidance equipment, but can also disrupt other systems. I’ve personally seen this.

[ansel12]

Granted, the Inverse Square Law means that the EMP event must be relatively close to you so that your electronics would be the last thing you would have to worry about.......................

Not according to the military, that is why our man carried radios weighed so much in the 1980s and before, because of EMP shielding.

[Red Badger]

Well, it is a natural consequence that if you are in the military, carrying a radio on your back, you are most likely going to be a target.......................(and yes, I have carried one).......................

[ansel12]

My point was that those radios were protected against EMP, meaning that they were to be used by living people.

[Red Badger]

Well, whoever found them after the EMP could still use them...................

[ansel12]

Evidently for something to be affected by EMP not everyone has to die.

On this thread you are reading of actual EMP effects causing damage over vast areas, yet no one died.

Now you want to say that the military makes their man carried radios heavy by designing them to survive EMP, so that someday in the future, someone can find the radios with their dead batteries?