Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The EMP threat

I've read Forstchen, A. American, and others. Interesting books, but I don't buy into all their premises.

On tv yesterday Ron Paul said we dont need to do anything. He said NK cant even turn their lights on. On Tucker.

Sucker is unreal.

He has an older Subaru Outback and has "EMP hardened" it by constructing and installing a small Faraday cage in/around the engine compartment. I suspect he had something on the inside of the car as well, though i never looked inside.

I believe he was a military historian and based his books on a commission report on this topic that came out simultaneously with the 9/11 commission report and subsequently was buried from the public consciousness due to that horrific attack and public attention.

That report however pointed out the general serious vulnerability of our electrical grid infrastructure and painted a fairly bleak picture of the potential effect of such an attack.

Forstchen, may have taken some literary license but in scanning the report (its online) perhaps not. Anyway, he tells a story well.

We tested a sample of 37 cars in an EMP simulation laboratory, with automobile vintages ranging from 1986 through 2002. Automobiles of these vintages include extensive electronics and represent a significant fraction of automobiles on the road today. The testing was conducted by exposing running and nonrunning automobiles to sequentially increasing EMP field intensities. If anomalous response (either temporary or permanent) was observed, the testing of that particular automobile was stopped. If no anomalous response was observed, the testing was continued up to the field intensity limits of the simulation capability (approximately 50 kV/m).

Automobiles were subjected to EMP environments under both engine turned off and engine turned on conditions. No effects were subsequently observed in those automobiles that were not turned on during EMP exposure. The most serious effect observed on running automobiles was that the motors in three cars stopped at field strengths of approximately 30 kV/m or above. In an actual EMP exposure, these vehicles would glide to a stop and require the driver to restart them. Electronics in the dashboard of one automobile were damaged and required repair. Other effects were relatively . Twenty-five automobiles exhibited malfunctions that could be considered only a nuisance (e.g., blinking dashboard lights) and did not require driver intervention to correct. Eight of the 37 cars tested did not exhibit any anomalous response.

Based on these test results, we expect few automobile effects at EMP field levels below 25 kV/m. Approximately 10 percent or more of the automobiles exposed to higher field levels may experience serious EMP effects, including engine stall, that require driver intervention to correct. We further expect that at least two out of three automobiles on the road will manifest some nuisance response at these higher field levels. The serious malfunctions could trigger car crashes on U.S. highways; the nuisance malfunctions could exacerbate this condition. The ultimate result of automobile EMP exposure could be triggered crashes that damage many more vehicles than are damaged by the EMP, the consequent loss of life, and multiple injuries.

A Faraday cage only works when grounded. So, if he's out and about when the EMP hits, he's screwed just like everyone else.

Parked in the garage and connected to a grounding rod, maybe OK.

BTW, DoD did lots of tests relative to EMPs. If one does hit, disconnect your battery, reconnect and retry your vehicle. Chances are it'll start.

Or so I'm told.

George: there is extensive literature our there on the net regarding the frailty of our grid. It is extremely vulnerable to many other ways to sabotage it and nothing as drastic as a nuclear initiated EMP. Basically, hit a few electrical hubs/grids around the country that are very unprotected and the cascading effect will ensure complete shutdown.

Really, its not cheap, but building a room or an additional garage with a faraday cage would be the right solution.

Have to put some thought into which direction the pulse would come from.

In the book, it came from over the midwest (east from my location), but who wouldn't hit California or Seattle given the chance (southwest and west from my location).

Maybe an underground bunker IS the solution?

Really, its not cheap, but building a room or an additional garage with a faraday cage would be the right solution.

Have to put some thought into which direction the pulse would come from.

In the book, it came from over the midwest (east from my location), but who wouldn't hit California or Seattle given the chance (southwest and west from my location).

Maybe an underground bunker IS the solution?

"You should probably buy some kerosene and a mule."

And I'd walk behind, bustin' them clods with ma own bare feet!

That mule, Ol' Rivers,,,,,,,,, and me!