EMP And What You Can Do About It – Non-Fiction Writing Contest Submission by Ray
EMP, or Electromagnetic Pulse. Most of us have heard of it, some of us understand what it is and what it does, and those who have read “One Second After” have an idea of what will happen if we are attacked with it. Some additional info can be found at here.
The U.S. Government created a commission to study EMP and what it could do to the safety and security of the United States. Unfortunately, this Committee published its report the same day as the 911 Commission, so it didn’t get much news coverage. You can read the report at www.empcommission.org. The bottom line in the report is that it is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ we will be hit.
EMP will take out everything electronic, whether it is connected to the grid or sitting unplugged on the kitchen counter. Things connected to the grid may fry from the 100,000 volt surge brought in through the power distribution lines.
Electronics with transistors or integrated circuits are extremely sensitive to static electricity, and can be destroyed by as little as 100 volts. Walking across a carpet and sparking to that door know is well over 1000 volts. The surge created by the EMP in your electronic device will be sufficient to destroy them if they are not protected.
One of the committee members likened EMP to a time machine, transporting our society from ‘today’ to ‘1870’ in about one second. We become, once again, an agrarian society, capable of supporting the level of population that we had in 1870. This means that there will be a lot of Americans dying.
Our goal, your goal, is to be among the survivors. There are many things that need to be done to prepare: learning survival skills, having land and gardening/preserving knowledge, and many other things.
Having communications and some of the gadgets survive could mean the difference between surviving and not surviving. Things like solar battery chargers, batteries, inverters, ignition systems for chain saws, critical farm equipment electronics, walkie-talkies, NV gear among others could be critical when the time comes.
What is EMP?
When a nuclear bomb is exploded above the atmosphere, it releases gamma rays in all directions. The ones that head towards the atmosphere strike air molecules and strip off electrons.
Those electrons and gamma rays head towards Earth, stripping even more electrons. This avalanche of electrons, called the Compton Effect, interact with the Earth’s electromagnetic field, creating very strong magnetic waves.
When a magnetic field crosses a conductor, electrical current is produced. When this EMP magnetic wave crosses power lines, electronic equipment, anything conductive, current is produced. Enough current could be produced to create fires, exploding transformers, extremely high voltage (current pushing through resistance results in voltage) which can break down insulation and create arcing and short circuits.
In 1962 the US detonated a 1.4 megaton bomb over one of the test sites in the Pacific. It was high enough that the island of Hawaii, 900 miles away, had 300 street lights go out, and some microwave links were damaged.
Hours after the detonation there were still surges and ripples in the power system. That was when we used vacuum tubes and before transistorized equipment was on the market. Today, with microcircuits and all of the very high tech equipment that we have in our homes, our factories and our defenses, we are more vulnerable than ever.
The U.S. Senate recently stripped funds for hardening the country’s power grid against EMP from a homeland security bill.
We are on our own.
What can be harmed?
Will EMP harm you? You, the human, will be safe. Magnetic waves, even very strong ones, will not harm you. MRIs use strong magnetic waves to make images of your innards.
But, look around you at anything with a wire or a chip. Whatever you see, be it toaster, TV, laptop, microwave oven, radio, chain saw, car, or truck, it is vulnerable, and the higher the technology the more vulnerable.
WSHTF you won’t need a TV, but you will need a radio, perhaps walkie-talkies, probably solar battery chargers, that ignition coil on your chain saw, maybe that night vision scope and whatever else you deem necessary for your survival. EMP won’t hurt you, but it may take away every electronic device that you posses.
If you are part of a group, you might consider building a larger box and sharing it, and the cost.
What can I do?
One way to protect your gear is to build a Faraday Shielded Box and keep your stuff in it. A faraday shield is simply a physical device that prevents electromagnetic radiation from passing, in or out. In our case, we’ll take a cardboard box, cover it with copper screening material, and then ground it well.
I’ll describe the one that I built and you can size it up or down as you think necessary. Copper screen material with wire spacing of 0.1” is needed, and is the most expensive part of the project. You can keep costs down by only making as big a box as necessary. But when you think of the cost, think of the cost of the items that you will be protecting and what it might cost you if they don’t make it.
I started with a 2’ x 2’ x 3’ cardboard box. I actually had two of them. I cut the top flaps off of one, and cut up the other to bend and fold a lid like a hat box, with about 2” of side overlap. I wanted a loose fitting top, with plenty of overlap on the sides. You don’t want any holes or gaps in the copper shielding, which is why I put the 2” flap on the lid for the box.
I laid out the screen coverage to minimize the number of lapped joints, cut the screen and used spots of hot melt glue to hold the pieces in place. I folded the screen around lips and edges, cut and tucked it into corners, and then used a very hot (150 W) soldering iron to solder all of the lap joints and corners. On the lid, not only cover the outside, but fold the screen into the underside for the side overlaps. You don’t want any missed areas of coverage of the screen.
Next, take a piece of bare #10 AWG or #12 AWG (house wiring Romex) and strip off the insulation. Form it into a loop with a pigtail. Now make a second one. Lay one on one side flap of the lid and solder the pigtail to the screen. Put the lid on the box and solder the other loop to the main box a couple of inches below the pigtail loop on the lid.
Your box is ready. Find an out of the way place where it can stay undisturbed. From the box, run a copper wire (#10 AWG) outside the house to a ground rod. You can use a ground rod of copper or galvanized steel, or you can get 10’ of ½” galvanized pipe. Drive it into the ground at least 8’, attach the copper wire to the clamp, and make sure that you always have the box and lid connected to the ground wire. At the box end of the wire, use alligator clips to conned the main wire to one of the pigtails and then make a short jumper between the two pigtails.
I haven’t finished stocking mine, but my list includes: night vision goggles, IR laser sight for the rifle, game camera, batteries, crank emergency radio, walkie-talkies, solar battery charger, 12V to 110 VAC inverter, ignition coil for the chain saw and an alternator for the tractor.
30 comments
My faraday cage is a conex shipping container, 8′ X 8′ X 40′ since it sits on concrete piers I grounded it with a 10′ pole as mentioned above, all ecectronics are then wrapped in mylar bags then paper and masking tape. Wrapped in aluminum foil placed in a cardboard box then on a wood shelf. When I catch up from having paid off the mortgage, I hope to garage a quad and some motorcyles in it. Any advice on a backup storage drive for my kindle and e books would be welcome.
Threat #1…The Sun.
You should worried more about the Sun rather than some device going off. Presently, as we enter solar maximumover the next 6/7 years, the sun will generate storms that will impact earth by EM or Xrays making a device look like a firecracker.
Imagine no national electrical grid, imagine no power for 6 months to years, imagine no comm satellites. Read about the solar storm of 1859 and telegraph wires bursting into flames.
What ever scenario you just planned for, I’d double or triple it.
I would like to makes some corrections to a much misunderstood subject on the effects of EMP. The article describes how it is generated via the Compton affect correctly, but then incorrectly describes the problems and countermeasures. I am a degreed electronic engineer with nearly 40 years in practice, and worked as a volunteer amateur radio operator in the MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) from the early 1980’s into the mid 1990s. This was a time in communications when we were migrating from vacuum tubes to solid state electronics and the military communication planners were well aware of the EMP issue, and produced quite a bit of documentation and training material on the subject.
EMP produces high voltages and currents via induction from a magnetic field across a conductor. If we think of the conductor as an antenna, then the smaller the antenna, the smaller the induced power will be. What this means is that many small electronic items, from FRS radios, to cell phones may be untouched, because the voltages induced internally are small. Nearly any item plugged into the power from the electrical grid, will however most likely be compromised, because of the vast array of antennas (i.e., power lines) stretching across the country. Nearly all modern electronics are hardened against induced voltages from things like static electricity and tested using both contact and air gap discharge tests with a minimum voltage in the range of 4000-8000 volts or more. Unfortunately, most devices connected to the power line will suffer damage, up to and including complete inoperability, due to the induced high voltages on the power grid, which then are presented to the outlets in your home. There is however both good and bad news here. While your cell phone may be undamaged, the cell towers, and interconnections to the normal telephone network will most likely fail, leaving you with a rather useless communications device with perhaps a working mp3 player and camera. Keep in mind however that you may have antennas on some of your equipment that is not connected to the power grid. A large solar electric panel has a large surface area and wiring, and makes a pretty good antenna for induced power, and I’m not sure you can really do anything to save them, other than a duplicate set stored in an EMP proof manor. In short, anything not connected to the power grid that has its own extended wiring (antenna) is vulnerable.
The 1962 event which destroyed street lamps happened precisely because the lamps were part of a large antenna system which allowed large voltages and currents to be produced. While it is true that most humans will not be harmed by the power induced by an EMP event, it is possible that someone with a pacemaker, the lead wires of which may make a good set of antennas, could be affected. It will to some extent even depend on the orientation of the body (and the lead wires) during the event.
Mitigation
So what can we do to save at least some if our equipment if an event occurs? There are several things, a few of which will be outlined here.
Old stuff: My 30+ year old Stihl chainsaw and my 40+ year old generator both use magnetos and no electronics for the ignition. Keeping additional spark plugs, etc. is a good thing to do regardless of an EMP event, and is simply good practice. The same would also apply to older vehicles with carburetors and standard points & condenser. You get the point here. Use old stuff with critical spares.
Spares: Keep EMP protected spares of equipment or repair components for newer equipment that you have decided is required equipment.
Naturally shielded Equipment: whenever possible, purchase electronics in metal enclosures and not plastic. While not perfect, the metal enclosure will provide some amount of faraday shielding to your device. All of my Yaesu radios are build this way using heavy cast aluminum for the main body.
Natural Faraday Shield: Storing equipment in naturally shielded enclosures can provide protection to varying degrees depending on the enclosure, and can make a good place to store commonly used devices. Metal desks, filing cabinets, metal storage boxes (tool box with tight fitting lid), or even a 30 gallon metal trash can with a tight fitting lid, can be convenient and are a better place to store things than laying out on the countertop or table.
Faraday Shielded cage or box: A Faraday shielded container is simply one that is completely covered with, or constructed of a conductive material (e.g., metal). Any metal will do, and although commercial cages are generally constructed with copper mesh, copper is not required. The problem with constructing a single container is that everything must be stored there, and may not be easily available for everyday use. Also, since the container cannot have any holes in it, the only way to really be sure it is always protective, is to have an airlock type door system, ensuring that one of the two doors is always closed when accessing the contents. The simplest way to provide protection is to keep things in their original boxes, and wrap the boxes like Christmas or Birthday presents with several overlapping layers of aluminum foil, being careful not to tear the foil on the corners or any sharp edges. Storing devices in anti-static bags is not a bad idea, but is unnecessary when the device is encased in foil. Additionally, you can store these wrapped (mini Faraday cages) in your other cages (e.g., trash can, filing cabinet, etc), to provide layered protection. BTW, the copper mesh is generally used to allow external light to penetrate the cage, since having anything but a battery powered light in the cage would represent a break of the cage integrity to the outside world.
To ground or not to ground: There seems to always be heated discussion on whether or not to ground a Faraday cage. The short answer is that it isn’t necessary and indeed may be harmful in some configurations. Assuming the cage is constructed properly, which can be tested by placing a battery powered radio inside (the radio should stop producing sound when the cage is closed). The magnetic field gradients within the box should always cancel out to zero, regardless of whether or not the cage is grounded. Once you get the radio to stop, add, and remove a ground and you’ll see that the radio is not affected. If the cage is physically close to earth ground, a heavy breaded ground may not hurt anything, but is not required. Connecting a lighter (single copper wire) more than a few feet, may seem like a ground connection, but in reality can act like an antenna. While this in itself won’t hurt anything, if it is long enough and enough power is induced into it, you could see arcing, in, around, and possibly through your cage barrier. The only real danger of leaving the cage ungrounded, is that if you are touching it at the moment of an EMP event, you will likely receive a nasty shock.
Final (random) thoughts: Keeping things protected from an EMP event isn’t all that hard, and dealing with individual items may provide some security, that may not be provided with a single large storage container. If 50% of your mini aluminum foil wrapped packages fail, you lose half your stuff. If your Faraday storage room fails, you may lose all of it. Keep in mind that the LED’s in flashlights are solid state devices, and although superior in almost every way to the older light bulb based lights, may be susceptible to EMP when those old light bulbs are not. Keeping additional supplies (like the diodes for the vehicle alternator) wrapped in aluminum foil and tucked in the bottom of the drawer, will give you the ability to fix the broken things if an event actually breaks them. Another event generally lumped into the EMP discussion is that of an EMP type event due to a solar storm. The good thing here is that NASA keeps a pretty close eye on the sun and we generally get some warning on future events. If this concerns you check out: http://spaceweather.com/ for forecasts and other interesting information.
Get some cheap aluminum foil and look around the house and I suspect you’ll find a lot of potential hidey holes that will fit the bill.
Good luck.
Well, the Faraday cage doesn’t have to be copper mesh. It could also be solid metal, so anything from ammo boxes to 10 shipping container will do just fine. You just have to make sure that the lid is connected to the rest of the enclosure and the whole thing is well grounded. Also there should be as little holes, and as small as possible in the enclosure. Guess that the ammo box is little bit cheaper and easier to deal with than a copper mesh.
I would use a solid metal enclosure such as an ammo can or large tool box or even an old washer can be rigged up. The copper mesh may not block all of the spectrum of the EMP attack which could let in some of the energy.
The necessity of grounding is debatable for smaller enclosures, but as the author describes a rod into the actual earth is the only safe ground for EMP because the electrical outlets and water pipes will also have EMP energy induced into them making them hot temporarily. If you are on the move you will not be able to earth ground the boxes anyway.
I have an EMP page on my web site with a lot of good links.
http://www.set2survive.com/EMP_Page.html
EMP is definitely something we need to prepare for and it isn’t expensive or difficult. After an event you will want that short wave radio and your walkies talkies to work.
I use the large 20mm ammo cans ( L 17″ x W 7″ x H 15″ ) as a Faraday cage. I line the inside with cardboard. I then wrap the original electronics box in aluminum foil and put them in the ammo can. I don’t have a lot of of electronics, just a couple of radios, walkie talkies, computer parts, and some thumb drives. I bought the ammo cans for $7 at a yard sale, but they sell them at gun shows for about $25. I don’t ground them, but put them on a wood shelf. Ammo cans are cheap, portable, and effective.
jack,dont forget that ammo cans have a rubber gasket. to ensure constant metal to metal contact of the lid with the box,remove the gasket and fill that void with rolled tin foil. over stuff the void and then force the lid closed.
Aha, now this is something I can do! Thanks for posting this, Jack. Also, I appreciate bctruck adding the finer points about removing the gasket and filling the void. Since this is a cheap and easy fix, I’ll definitely be using this as my Faraday box. If it works – fantastic. If not – it’s living in the 1850s for me. Oh well, few of us need all the latest gadgets for survival (except those needing pacemakers, dialysis, etc). We will survive.
Thanks again Jack & bctruck. Wishing you good luck with your preps.
An 8ft grounding rod may not be enough. It must remain in contact with moist earth. If going with an 8 ft rod be sure to water the rod on a regular basis.
I learned this from having electric fences to contain cattle.
(edited to add last sentence.)
I like the point you make Lorenzo. I will admitt i didnt think about the watering cause the rod goes so deep. As my boxes will be cached far from me I will have to rig up something or move my boxes to better hidden/burried locations.
When cheating on ground rod testing. Electrians will put salt down near the bottom of the whole.
Unfortunately, those that use large metal containers will discover, albeit too late, that large masses of metal tend to “concentrate” the electrical impulse from an EMP. AND, they have a tendency to HOLD the CHARGE for an indefinite period of time, unless the metal container is really grounded…NOT JUST sitting on the ground.
Screens, made of metal, preferably in order: platinum, gold, silver, copper, and brass are the best, IF, they have no openings larger than 1mm in any direction. Even aluminum window screen will work. It’s best to have 2 layers of screen separated by say an inch or more, for complete protection. Grounding is the hard part! No water pipes or house grounds will suffice. Many people have read on the internet how an ammo can or even a trash can will work, as long as it has a tight fitting lid. It won’t.
Try a test for yourselves. An EMP is made of a variety of wavlengths, so knowing this, your “container” should easily stop a wavelength from either a local radio station, or even a cell phone, right?
Try it! See IF your “protection” will stop those simple wavelengths from penetrating. Most will go right on thru! After a LOT of experimenting “we” discovered that a roll of of chicken wire 3 ft wide x 100 ft long, with 4 inch diameter holes on each end, actually stopped ANYTHING we threw at it! I mean really? Who knew!?
Ammo cans did not. Conex ( cargo boxes, 8′ x 8′, 8′ x20′ , 8′ x 40′) did not
work at all. We used everything we had from FRS/MRS radios, cell phones, AM/FM radios, CB radios and 10 meter and 6 meter ham bands.
A cardboard box, wrapped with 2 layers of aluminum foil worked better than either a new 20 or 32 gallon trash cans.
Like I said, do some testing for yourselves and see what works!
You are going to be surprised about how easy it really is, and how the big metal containers offer NO resistance at all to many of the wavelengths out there right now!
Have some fun with it, while you still can!
I built my emp cages from 2 x 2′s and window screen inside and outside with a “shelf” inside made of perf board, to insulate the radios from touching ANY metal at all (that’s the key there!).
I have seen some made of 2 x 4′s and 8 ft tall and 4 ft square. They really do work, and they are easy to see inside, and if in doubt, wrap the electrical equipment in 2 layers of aluminum foil, then place them on the shelf/shelving inside. Double your INSURANCE!
Bill
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be offensive here. But what you say, basically proves only one thing, and that is “electromagnetic waves are unpredictable”. I have no idea what have you done with the ammo boxes that you have been able to penetrate it with your FRS radio signal, or what mobile phone you could have been using, but simply put, ammo can is not a bad Faraday cage as well as anything that this metal container. There is indeed relation between the wave lenght and and openings in the faraday cage, but as long as you go full metal jacket you get better.
Also the very important point I forgot to mention is that none of the electronics should touch the outer metal skin of the cage (being it mesh or solid metal).
And as for my tests, I’ve been successfully using a metal toolbox grounded to a heatpipe in my apartment, with pretty much anything I’ve thrown at it. None of the cages are perfect tho, so if you place a superior antenna system inside and connect it to the radio you still might be able to pickup some signal.
And for the last, I do agree with the idea of not having grounded to any water pipes in the apartment/house.
Last but not least, the saying that large metal masses have tendency to hold charge, is simply untrue. Batteries and capacitors do retain charge, metal only conduct and that’s it. Some very badly designed Faraday cages could act as capacitors or batteries due to the insulation materials used, but that would be heck of a coincidence…
I am staying neutral. But I would like to add one point.
Aluminum is not magnetic.
When you are running you’re grounding electrode in electrical systems. You want any ferrous metal objects surrounding your conductor grounded on both ends so that the steel does not act as a magnetic choke: electron flow is slowed while energy is put into the magnetic field.
But apparently lighting and your manufactured electrical currents are moving much slower than your EMP pulse. So I suspect that the iron in your containment is slowing it up even though it is part of the electrical path.
You may want to consider an aluminum box. When you ground your aluminum box to other metal (copper or metal) be sure to use conductors made for that purpose or galvanic action will corrode the connection.
I found a link that explains some of the issues with induction.
http://www.williamson-labs.com/480_rlc-l.htm
In this case, it is the ferrous conductor (the steel box) having to energize its own magentic field that I am speaking of.
Emp’s can harm humans!
IF you just happen to have a pacemaker in your chest!
( metal screws, plates and such: unclear at this time, but the prospects look good for a shock of sorts)
Also, a study discovered that IF your were to be in a close proximity to a large MASS of metal where the emp could be concentrated, such as a building with heavy steel I beams and such, yes it could be detrimental to one’s health! Cargo boxes, are NOT recommended for personal protection.
Liken it to a lightning strike if you will….if you are on a cell phone when an emp is discharged, you may get a loud ringing in the ears!
If you are on a hardwired phone ( home phone connected via wire), you could get a serious injury.
Personally I can’t afford a new $6,500. computer for my vehicle ( salvage yard prices!), so, I bought 3 vehicles with NO computerized anything!
Closed circuits cause the emp to do considerably more damage, than say if you had NO battery connected at the time. That’s an easy fix!
Well, at least we agree on the need for a very good earth ground. But I am doubtful about using a mesh or screen shield alone.
Unfortunately the scientists at the national laboratories, egg heads in academia, and of course government have not given We the People any authoritative guidance on how we can protect our electronics from EMP.
There is more unknown than known and the actual event should it happen will have many surprises. Some experiments have demonstrated that cars will be OK, others show they will die and not run again without repair. It depends on a lot different things, strength of the attack, shielding of the gear, and sensitivity of the electronics.
I would be careful about drawing conclusions from homegrown experiments with radio receivers that conclude using mesh or screen is enough protection for a full blown EMP attack. On the other hand maybe an ammo can won’t do it either. Maybe using both methods is the safest course.
I’d put it like more shielding=more protection, but nothing is definitive. Like you say, there is no proven method.
The thing here is that the EMP generators used to proof test some aircrafts, is just not generating the same stuff as as a nuke blast high in the atmosphere. The nuke is likely to produce a wide range of wavelenghts, which the EMP generator couldn’t produce. So there is no definitive answer, unless someone do fire the misile (hopefully not)
Probably best is to rely on no electronic devices and be nicely surprised when they work afterall.
PS: feel free to modify this comment, I’ve probably used too many offending keywords that could draw too much unwanted attention:(
One additional suggestion is to have a redundant supply of electronic equipment protected in Faraday cages just in case the first ones you use after an EMP event get fried by residual charges.
Each of my protected electronics has its own Faraday box and they are placed inside a larger, well-grounded copper screen cage. The shelves inside the copper screen cage are non-conducting as is its frame and the inner Faraday cages are insulated from touching the screen. On most of the inside boxes I use heavy duty aluminum foil to cover sturdy non-conducting boxes. I do not ground the inner Faraday boxes.
This is a timely topic, considering the solar activity that will probably raise havoc with us puny Earthlings for the next several years. Whether a natural phenomenon or a manmade attack, EMP will probably be a reality.
So, it is with interest that I read what Ray had to say, and I’ve appreciated the comments that followed his article. I’ve especially enjoyed the comments that were presented respectfully and not antagonistically. Civility should not be lost, even during trying times.
I’m new to learning about EMP and realize I have much to learn. What I’m hoping for is a simple solution to a complicated problem. So my question is simple and I’d appreciate some civil discourse on it. Here’s my question:
Will a good quality gun safe serve as an adequate Faraday box for smaller electronic items? I have seen gun safes that have thick steel exteriors, with interiors that are lined throughout with carpeting (except the inside of the door – I have never seen one with carpeting on the inside of the door). Most of the gun safes I’ve looked at had small holes (with plastic plugs) in the tops – for what, I’m not sure. To allow insertion of a dehumidifier or a fiberoptic light? I have no idea. Anyhow, I’m wondering if a grounded gun safe would make a good Faraday box for radios, walkie-talkies, battery testers, etc.? Or is this idea no better (or worse) than a grounded freezer buried partway into the ground?
lint picker the rubber gasket on the freezer door would prevent it from making a continuious seal against emp.a safe, to me seems as though it would be a better alternative to the freezer. but again you would need to make sure that all openings are sealed against emp and nothing on the inside touches the metal on the outside.like an earlier poster,ive spent far to much of my time trying to sift through the conflicting information put forth by experts who are all sure they are correct.i think it comes down to doing the best you can at protecting electronics that are /would be important to your quality of life and praying it is enough.
Thanks for the input. I’ll have to go back to the store and look over the gun safes a little more carefully. Gotta count the holes and gaps and measure them. I like that the lock on some of the safes are still manual (as opposed to electronic locks). Yeah, I’m liking the idea of a larger Faraday box made from a gun safe. I think a safe would be fairly easy to ground, too.
Between the ammo cans described by Jack and bctruck (above) and a modified gun safe, I think I’ve got as good a plan as any in my price range.
I’m a happy prepper!
Just don’t get a safe with an electronic lock.
There are some easy to overcome faults in a conex.
Ground it well, just sitting on the ground isn’t enough.
Vents, silver solder copper mesh over air holes.
Walls, insulate from wooden shelves, I use paper bags full of newsprint [Paper is also fuel for my safari grill]
Doors, grounded to body, and to each other, and reinforced seals.
While aluminum is not magnetic, it is conductive. Aluminum, lead, and even copper tubing can be fashioned into crushwashers. Lead crushwashers have been an industry standard for feed tube fittings on chlorine tanks for decades. I have no way to test this, but if a lead washer will contain a halogen gas like chlorine the contact must be complete enough to form an electron shield. [lead washer can or door seals can later be recycled]
Likewise a rubber or neoprene gasket on an ammo can be replaced with aluminum or copper tubing sized to be crushed tightly to one surface and soldered to the other. I solder mine to the lid.
The outer layer of individual packages must be degaussed [grounded] before opening, my plan is to use jumper cables. One end attached to the ground rod the other holding an anode [in my case a 9" copper nail.] I use aluminum foil as it is also needed for the safari grill.
great topic here… anyone know when it’s safe to remove your electronics from the box after an emp attack? i think if this happens it will send everyone in to a panic and i would be hiking to my bug out location very shortly after the attack. the walkie talkies are coming with me so i just want to be sure i dont remove them too soon and damage them.
The way I’ve prepared for EMP is to have redundancy in my electronic equipment and to have them protected in separate Faraday cages. Back in my Civil Defense days (and later to be Emergency Management) we were taught that, in the event of nuclear detonation by an enemy, more than one salvo would be launched. In that case, what you had outside of your Faraday cage might be at risk. In addition, the electonics inside my Faraday cages are individually protected in other smaller Faraday boxes. When removing a smaller Faraday box from the Faraday cage after an EMP event, I intend to touch the smaller box with a well-grounded grounding rod to be sure it is not holding a charge.
The answer is immediately (sort of). The damaging effects of EMP don’t hang around to cause damage after the event, although the damage does. Think of it as being shot at and missed. You can stand up immediately if you’re sure the shooter doesn’t have another bullet to fire at you. EMP is one of those low probability high impact events, and the concern I have for equipment that survives is a second event (attack). In this way (only) it’s analogous to lightning. Touching something that has been struck by lightning will not shock you (at least not from the lightning), but you might want to wait until you’re sure the storm is over.
OhioPrepper – Thanks for your comment and especially for your informative guest post on this topic. In order to dispell information we were taught years ago while in Civil Defense/Emergency Management (and understand that I don’t have the scientific background and full knowledge about this subject as you have), we were given the impression that items stored in un-grounded Faraday boxes placed on non-conducting surfaces should be degauzed after an EMP event. Does this apply to ferrous boxes only or none at all?
We saw it as not only a temptation but a need to use our electonic equipment as soon as possible after an event thereby having the need for redundancy. What differences do you anticipate with a major solar storm such as one similar to the Carrington Event? In a single EMP attack the effects are over in a relatively short period of time; but do the effects of a large solar storm linger over a longer time?
I assume that boxes constructed of ferrous material could be magnetized by emp, but I can’t think of what kind of problems that would cause to the equipment stored in the container. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a problem, just nothing I can think of at the moment.
As for Solar storms, think of my lightning analogy above. Wait until the storm is over. If the internet infrastructure is still up & running, spacewaeather can help you determine that. If it isn’t up, then we’re own our own as to guessing when it’s over.
Some of the best faraday cages you can get are from LBA, if you are serious about protecting your stuff. These are high end, lab grade enclosures.
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