I spoke with a colleague who is 'in the business' of this very thing as an engineer working for a well known company and his first comments were that most of the critical issues can be addressed by proper bonding and grounding

that said, he said a lot of the technology is not currently open source info however there are a lot of IEEE and MILSPEC documents available that address the issue with regard to EMI and its the same technology

he is doing a bit of digging for me today and will try to have a short bibliography of some documents a bit later

as far as I got from him, there are no currently available textbooks on the topic but he is checking on that as well

one thing he did mention is that whatever style cage you plan on using, it is critical that the component you wish to protect have absolutely no contact with the cage - it must be well isolated

It's just a matter of time before the earth will be hit by a major EMP event from a major carona mass ejection from the sun. Such thing have happened many times in the past, even recently. Only luck prevented us from missing the event. One of the things that politicians will have to answer for is why the issue was not addressed when we knew it is just a matter of time before it does. Talk about infrastructure spending? Preparing for this should be at the top of the list. From a recent article in the Washington Examiner:

Massive solar flare narrowly misses Earth, EMP disaster barely avoided by Paul Bedard

The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an "electromagnetic pulse" so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth's typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

"The world escaped an EMP catastrophe," said Henry Cooper, who led strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

Link: https://www.washingtonexaminer...aster-barely-avoided

A Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us," said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

"Basically this is a Russian roulette thing," added Pry. "We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster."

Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation's electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy's nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation "for a long time."

But Washington is giving them the cold shoulder, especially the administration. Woolsey told Secrets that some in Congress are interested in the issue, but the administration is just in the "beginnings" of paying attention.

Woolsey said that Air Force One and aircraft used by the Strategic Air Command to control nuclear-tipped missiles are hardened against an EMP.

The EMP effect is not rare. One occurred in Canada in 1989, knocking out Quebec's electric transmission system. And North Korea is reportedly testing a device to attack the U.S. with an EMP attack.

The trio appeared at an event in Washington this week, but Pry said getting the nation's leaders interested in the issue is difficult and educating the public about EMP hard too. "The education curve isn't going up fast enough," he said.

At the event, Cooper suggested that North Korea might already have the capability to launch an EMP against the United States. He said in December, North Korea tested its so-called Space Launch Vehicle which could deliver a stealthy nuclear attack on the United States by orbiting a nuclear weapon over the South Pole where the U.S. has no radar or missile interceptors facing south. North Korea, he said, apparently orbited a satellite over the south polar region on a trajectory and altitude consistent with making a surprise nuclear EMP attack against the United States.

Woolsey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are the honorary co-chairs of a new EMP Coalition pushing for protections to the electric grid, national security, and civilian infrastructures.

Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fed161,

My wife all but thinks I'm insane at times. Bought a laptop for $300 (new) to show old home videos to my mom who's bedridden. When done, I copied over 100 .PDFs, things like "make a windmill" or "how to grow potatos with no work", make your own gunpowder, "canning for homesteaders, some Firefox and LDS prepping books etc etc . Wrapped it in 3 layers of foil along with an extra battery, slipped it into a Faraday bag and put the whole ragamarole into my Faraday *cough**garbage can***cough** cage. It has Walkie Takies, Solar Panels, Chargers, several emergency type AM/FM radios and a few extra am/fms picked up at garage sales for $3-$4, Ham radios, Multimeters and such wrapped in antistatic bag/then foil then in a box and stored in the cardboard lined garbage can. I have extras for the neighbors.

It's not simply the threat of an EMP but also a CME (solar flare), which scientists estimate has a 12% chance of hitting in the next 10 years!

I started doing this when the US military all started scrambling to move BACK into the outdated Cheyenne Mountain. The money to update the facility came AFTER units were moving back in. They clearly know something is up. At the time I figured that they had learned that the N. Koreans had figured out how to miniaturize warheads and had put them onto the 2 satellites that went over the US regularly.

Live tracking of both North Korean orbiting satellites: https://www.n2yo.com/?s=39026

NORAD leaves new state of the art base and scrambles to move back to "antiquated" but EMP proof Cheyanne Mountain complex. https://www.defensenews.com/gl...-to-mountain-bunker/

Info on NK Satellites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...y%C5%8Fngs%C5%8Fng-4

Info on CMEs https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phen...ronal-mass-ejections and here: https://www.nationalgeographic...ther-science-aurora/

Some EMP info: https://techprotectbag.com/

House of Rep testimony: https://docs.house.gov/meeting...te-PryP-20171012.pdf

What I did was separate things that needed to be charged periodically (such as the laptop and ham radios) and put those on top with the last date I charged them. Additionally I've added spares where applicable, such as AA holder that will power the radios in case their propriety battery is no working. I've been doing the same thing with my gas cans, and I rotate them every 6 months. I park the truck with a full tank, and have 15 gallons spare. Need to be able to go to the sparsely settled but game rich remote location we bought as a vacation home less than 100 miles out. If the truck is inoperable we will walk it with bicycles loaded down. I've walked longer distances and it's NBD if you are geared for it.

Once you've tossed a few things in the can and upgraded the surge protector to take a CMP hit, you can basically stop thinking or worrying about it. Well, for the next week or 2 until Pakistan and India start in again......:-)

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
2. If you think home appliances, or anything plugged into 110v, is safe I suggest you talk to people that have had lightening strikes near their homes. That surge/power spike is impressive and I would suggest that anything directly wired to the grid is susceptible to damage. We just had (last year) such a strike that fried a solar panel inverter and the controller that went with it. Neighbor, who was closer, lost more.

Don’t even need to be connected to the grid. Our house is off-grid solar and we got a lot of stuff in the office zorched several years ago in a lightning storm. Around eleven PM it seemed like a really cool light show. Then the reality set in that the only way into the garage (a metal building) was by grabbing the metal door handle on the man door and opening it. NFW that was happening. Oh well, we’re in for the duration. [The need for a clicker outside of the cars became obvious.]. Got tired of the show after a bit and went to bed. A little after one AM was awakened by the death rattle of the UPS protecting the computer driving the automated irrigation. Checked things out, went back to bed. Further investigation showed that a hit on the antenna used to talk to the electronics at the irrigation pump site travelled down the coax, literally scorched the radio at the end of the coax, rolled right down the serial line to the irrigation computer, fried it, then went out it’s power input cord into the load side of the UPS. Guess what? At least that UPS (and probably most) don’t protect against load side spikes. It went through the UPS, fried everything else connected to it, and some other random stuff in the house.

Lightning is nasty. I can’t think of any reason to believe EMP would be any less so.

I've made a couple cages using stuff that I have read about. Who knows if they will work. Both boxes are made out of 2" pink Styrofoam. Then I bent 18ga sheet metal to cover the outside of each of them.

Both of them are sitting on concrete floors, so I assumed well enough grounded. The more I think about it, I think I will add grounding rods like I used for the house, and link them via copper grounding wire.

CME's or EMP's are my biggest fear, as I have no idea how they will affect my solar setup. Have heard of possibilities of actually starting fires with so much energy being absorbed. Therefore I split my preps between 2 locations.

Great thread!!!!

Harry Diamond Labs use to have a test range in MD in the 80's. We had shelters tested there that had EMP protection.

I have read that the improved HEMP may damage some equipment since they are not sure of the magnitude of the output.

I am glad they moved back to Cheyenne Mountain. The remote site at the air base was due to the bad traffic conditions in that area and politics.

The transformers used on the grid are all different due to transmission load and voltage so it is a hard item to stock.

I slipped the foil wrapped laptop into this before it went into the Faraday Cage (which is lined with cardboard)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N...ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

well I went searching,
after about 2 hours I could find no conclusion.

I was thinking that the distance from ground zero
would define what you are seeking.
but

no website that I found would stipulate either e.m.p. or radiation facts and figures.

I was trying to figure out weather big buildings, topography or anything might impede e.m.p. ,


example : if your home were at the bottom of the grand canyon, and ground zero was 90 miles away ,
would the e.m.p.
just fly right over the top of you ?
missing your home all together ?

Here is a document that shows the results for testing at different voltages on various equipment.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy....ommission_report.pdf

I just called my local safe mover and he will replace my digital keypad safe lock with a S&G mechanical combination lock for $100. I'm going to do it. 4 left 3 right 2 left 1 right

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
4 left 3 right 2 left 1 right

(quickly writes down combination)

A hundred bucks? Sounds like a bargain.

BTW, much more likely than EMP disabling your electronic lock is the lock itself simply failing. I think it was Michael Baine who told us that he had not one but two failures of electronic locks on a Cannon safe. When that happens, you are locked out of your safe until your locksmith or safe guy tends to it.
Mecahnical locks are not foolproof, though. Don't spin the dial when you're entering the combination. This leads to premature wear of the lock, or so I am told.

^^^ @ bendable. It's line-of-sight to the horizon. I'm not sure about your Grand Canyon premise. I'd also like to know this.

Here is a place that tested EMP cloths and offers them for sale:

https://disasterpreparer.com/?product=emp-cloth

Also lots of other information on EMP.

MANY years ago I went to a technical school that was put on at Mississippi State University . MSU has a pretty good high voltage lab and we toured it . I remember a big warehouse like structure that housed a high voltage impulse generator . Probably over a million volts or so . There was a control room that had a desktop computer that had a wire mesh enclosure over it . It looked like chicken wire but it was copper . It was a home made Faraday cage and apparently it worked .

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:
4 left 3 right 2 left 1 right

(quickly writes down combination)

A hundred bucks? Sounds like a bargain.

BTW, much more likely than EMP disabling your electronic lock is the lock itself simply failing. I think it was Michael Baine who told us that he had not one but two failures of electronic locks on a Cannon safe. When that happens, you are locked out of your safe until your locksmith or safe guy tends to it.
Mecahnical locks are not foolproof, though. Don't spin the dial when you're entering the combination. This leads to premature wear of the lock, or so I am told.

The safe guy said he had a box full of mechanical locks from customers that replaced them with electronic. I will have to change the combination now. me and my big mouth.

Electronic safe locks are really convenient- for instance, they're only about a hundred times easier to change the combination, than with a mechanical lock. Damn fast to open, too, but, to me, it's not worth the risk.

For EMP and static electricity protection visit uline.com page 669. multiple sizes of 5 layer foil bags. We use them to ship circuit boards. Effective and very cost affordable.

They call them static shielding bags.