Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire EMP attack

That just goes to show how things are different by location. Draggin' a chain around here is a good way to get detected by the police.

Read the book:

One Second After

Speaks to exactly what the OP talks about. Decent read.

Another thought is when we have another solar event like 1859: Google up Carrington event. Wouldn't doubt there'd be a significant danger to all electronics via static buildup, but anything hooked up to power/phone/other grids would almost surely be toast.

And it's like the Yellowstone volcano - it's not IF we have another, it's when. With only one recorded since electronics were invented, tough to know if it happens every 150 years or every 150,000.

The nuke blast could be 250 miles in space above Kansas. It could knock all power out to the US, Southern Canada, and Northern Mexico. Any nuke power can do this, and we could not detect it from the south as all our radar and anti-missle stuff is directed north, east, and west against Russia or China. Iran or N Korea launching in a polar orbit south, would come over the US from the south. Or a missle from a Sub in the Gulf could do it. Government says it would take 6 months to one year to get power grid back up. In that time they say as many as 100 million Americans could die.

A solar flare back several years ago, knocked power off to northern Quebec for 6 weeks. Those in rural areas and small towns will fare better. Inner city people will die from lack of fresh water, sewage back up, and food deliveries. Also medicines. The Discovery Channel said that if this happened, half the vehicles in America would have their electeonics fried, thus the problem with food and medicine transportation. They tested 36 various vehicles for EMP damage, and half of them were fried. No power means no refrigerated food. Starvation, riots over food and water will take their toll.

An EMP is far more likely than Yellowstone. A giant solar flare or a rogue nation using a nuke has a greater chance of happening. Not tinfoil hat stuff. Even congress in 2006 designated $200 million to start EMP proofing the power grid, but the money was cut in 2008 after the crash, so nothing much has been done.

A metal roof grounded would help with your inside appliances, but having proper surge protectors on everything to protect from a surge from the power line to keep your stuff from burning the electronics would be needed also. Vechiles in metal reinforced parking buildings could be spared. Also in tunnels etc. Some vehicles have metal boxes around the electroincs, some don't. Military vehicles are all protected.

In any event, it could be just a nusance or the 100 million die, or somewhere in between. Nasa has said solar flares will be more likely the next two years based on solar observations of sun spot activity. Hmmm. N Korea and Iran both are developing missle technology for "satelite" launches. Easily converted to nuclear tipped.

Back many years ago I used to see a lot of commercial trucks, especially tankers, with short lengths of chain dragging the pavement beneath the rear end. My dad told me the chain was supposed to ground out static electricity.

Does a tinfoil hat require a ground wire?








Does anybody know for sure?

a good read, perhaps takes the scenario a little far but basically

Anyone dependent on meds dies within a a few weeks to months- especially insulin dependent diabetics- even pill form meds would be scarce within 3 months

Anyone with pacemakers, on oxygen

Thousands/millions die to poor drinking water almost immediately- our bodies are not use to dealing with dirty water like a 3rd world country plus no medical treatment

Food shortages within a few weeks- no refrigeration, no transportation, hording- especially if it hits just prior to growing season. Imagine Katrina on a national scale.

Read One Second After by William Forsyth. The gummint is aware and has taken some precautions against it but not enough. I think it could happen but can't know the damage until it happens.

As Calhoun points out, something like the Carrington Event would seriously fry our electrical grid. The solar flare induces very large currents in the system. There is a very real possibility of being without electrical service in much of the country for an extended period.

EMP is like touching off a multi-terawatt radio transmitter that blankets the whole spectrum. Every power cord and rain gutter becomes an antenna that scoops up radio frequency energy.

Most of the surge protection devices are pretty useless against EMP. The electronics will be gone before the surge protector reacts. It's like the old joke that a transistor will always protect a fuse by blowing first.

The metal body of a car will not protect the electronics against EMP. For one thing, the gap between the body and the hood will act like a slot antenna. To get effective shielding, you need a closed conducting shield that is well grounded. So instead of a tinfoil hat, think about covering your whole head with tinfoil, and adding a ground strap.

Older vehicles with points or a mageneto may survive. But for the most part, think in terms of no food, no gasoline, no electricity, and no transportation for several months, with the effects being felt for a few to several years.

I would guess that the effects of an EMP initiated by a nuclear blast would be rendered insignificant by the subsequent chain of events.

Denton, IIRC the pulse is mostly longwave and not much above 100 MHz. So while you get a destructive field intensity I wonder how much current gets pulled in by a short conductor and if could be handled by on-die protection which is pretty good these days. Then there's ESP protection where (IF) good engineering practices are followed. Pulse rise time is faster than lightning with an exponential decay but without checking I think not so fast that a Zener or TVS won't catch the bulk of it. So many variables you about have to use empirical testing.

For power this has been an issue since the '50s and newer surge protection equipment was thought to be effective against EMP for most of the plant and equipment. But that was before present control systems but I'd bet engineers considered EMP. Big question in my mind is what happens when more than a little of the grid trips and you have to restart the whole damned thing.

Yea but only if the chain has a black guy attached to it right?

As I understand it the High Altitude test burst was over or nearly over Johnston Atoll and knocked out the street lamps in Hono.

The EMP induces current and the speed of the pulse is too fast for conventional over current protection devices to react.

Roscoe Bartlett supervised a Congressional Blue Ribbon Panel to do a study and report. From what I read, it is a sobering reality and we are in no way as a society prepared for it. And the rags have discussed doing it to us.

I found Teapot HA 1955 but could not find any articles listing the conclusions from the test.

Conclusion from the early 1950's tests were, "Hm. Isn't that cool." Serious investigation began about 1960 but above ground tests ended in 1962 so there's not a wealth of data from actual events to go on. IIRC the streetlights went out because the pulse blew fuses. BTW, I have a pretty graph that shows a rise time on the order of 300 ns and an exponential decay over about 5 us, depending when you want to call it over. So it can be intercepted if you know what you're doing.

EMP's are so Y2K....

EMP is a very complicated subject. I'm an EE & have been involved with designing power systems for over 50 years & don't pretend to be an expert on EMP phenomena. There are two types of EMP, those generated by solar flares (E1 component) & a high altitude nuclear blast (E1, E2, & E3). E3 is the most damaging & is caused by a shift in the earths magnetic field. E3 will destroy all electronic devices, vehicle ignitions, satellites, & our power grid. There are all sorts of Faraday boxes on the Internet that "might" shield home electronics. I am told that at least one manufacturer has a system that will protect large power transformers & therefore the power grid. Based on what I know about large transformers I would have to analyze test data on actual units to believe this. I have held various positions with most of the large transformer manufacturers in the US. I was also involved with the power systems of some of the satellite tracking stations built by NSA & utilized some techniques to provide partial EMP protection. A large US defense contractor has developed a EMP weapon for our military that may or may not be fully deployed. Logic would indicate that if we have an EMP weapon other countries may as well. A high altitude low radiation nuclear weapon that produces gamma rays is the basis for an EMP weapon. Several well placed EMP weapons could probably destroy our national power grid & require 10-20 years & mega billions to replace. Much of the production of large power transformers is no longer in the US. I don't believe our current technology would allow power transformers & electronic devices to survive. It may be possible to properly shield & bury some electronic devices that could survive.