# EMP FAQs



## Wine Chick (Dec 30, 2011)

Explain it to me. I know that a faraday cage will protect your electronic items, but what items like ammo cans? Do they need to be grounded with some type of foam or padding inside them? Are there certain watches and compases that are resistant? Will security systems on prisons just open up and convicts escape? Will freezers just shut down or will they be safe since they are metal? How about homes that are built out of metal containers, or will it come through windows? I'm soooooo confused!


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## SSGT (Jul 29, 2012)

EMP's are shorted around products protected by Faraday cages...Simple...Am AMMO box makes a fine Faraday cage....A garbage can with a friction fitting lid makes a fine cage. Ammo boxes make a fine cage due to the hinges having metal to metal contact as well as the latch.

Items should be placed inside with some kind of insulation such as foam or paper..plastic holding the protected object away from the metal container by an eighth to a quarter inch. A Faraday cage should be grounded at least by ground rod to get a good dispersion ground to earth (8 foot ground rod for each container) and a good bolted on ground with a heavy ground wire as short as possible. Ground wire should be #8 or #6 wire size minimum.

If you clean the hinges of ammo boxes and the latches to bare metal and then use a dielectric grease(Automobile supply stores) to rustproof the metal it would help a lot!

I'm an OLLLDDD Nuclear / Biological and Chemical Warfare Defense NCO / US ARMY RETIRED from the COLD WAR....I have my radio's in AMMO cans when not in use!....Good and cheap!....They come in tons of sizes!...Have done extensive testing and they work! Leave the rubber seal in Ammo Cans...all you need is metal to metal contact in some way and overlapping metal on seams!

Here's good prices if you want multiple sizes!

NEW AMMO CANS & USED AMMO CANS THAT INCLUDE .30 CAL. AMMO CAN, .50 CAL. AMMO CAN, SAW AMMO CANS, BIG 50 AMMO CANS, FAT 50's AMMO CAN, FAT 50 AMMO CANS, 20MM AMMO CANS, 30 MM AMMO CANS, 40MM AMMO CANS, 120MM AMMO CANS, - Best Pricing on the net for A

And by the way any wind up watch is immune.....Any regular magnetic compass wont be harmed!

Freezers wont be harmed probably but the US Power grid wont be there....No electricity...no Freezer...Refrigerator!

Ask any other questions you can think of....I'll try to help!

Why are you worried about EMP's ? And from who?


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## PrepperRecon.com (Aug 1, 2012)

SSGT, will a regular metal gun safe act as a Faraday cage? It has the fire safe lining. Thanks


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

Good write up SSGT! Does anyone know what to do to protect cars/trucks, ATV's, motorcycles and coffee pots, yet still be usable working condition? Yes, I would still like to use my coffee pot to boil water via solar/battery after the fact.


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

Survival, as far as your vehicles are concerned, you would probably want spare electronic parts for them. One good and cheap way to do this, is to go to local junk yards, look for the same YEAR and make vehicles and buy the computers, distributors, injectors, and all sensors especially for them. For your solar , you certainly need extra diodes for each and every panel, a spare charge controller and inverter. Buy a used 40 channel cb radio, put that into a large ammo box like a 50 cal, along with rolls of wire, and electrical connectors. 
As far as you elect coffee pot, instead, buy an old fashioned perckalator for the top of ANY cook surface. Makes better coffee anyway. Thats all I use now, and I have 3 or more for back up. Redundancy is the key to emp threats


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## PrepperThyAngus (Sep 30, 2012)

To help protect electrical devices from EMP discharge, look into using an isolation transformer. This will isolate the electrical energy from directly flowing into electrical systems that you want to protect, to a certain extent. Any isolation transformer, or even any electrical device, will always have a certain "break down" threshold when exposed to higher voltages. This is why no system can be 100% protected because it really depends on the strength of the EMP pulse. 

It is my personal belief that technology has not quite made it to the point where EMP strength could surpass threshold points of "protected" or isolated electrical systems. However, a local nuclear blast could surpass threshold and electrically destroy your protected electrical systems. But with a local nuclear blast, you have more things to worry about than EMP.

I work as an electrical engineering technician. The project that I work for is developing a next generation laser accelerator using plasma and laser interactions. Part of this system uses a high voltage pulser to discharge 20-40kV of energy to create a plasma discharge. These laser, plasma, and gas interactions are all inside ultra high vacuum chambers. As you would assume, the high voltage pulser causes an EMP burst into the chambers, through the ground bonding of the chamber and back into our control and trigger systems for the pulser. Without protection, the EMP pulse will backfeed into the triggering system for the pulser and "trigger" it to fire, thus causing a loop. Fire a discharge, cause EMP which causes another discharge, etc.

We use industrial isolation transformers to protect our AC input power to our trigger and control systems. All cables and systems are housed inside "hoffman style" boxes which are actually like large ammo boxes or Faraday cages, all grounded.

And that's my point. Lets say you wanted to protect a communications center with a single surge protector powered by 120v AC. House all your components into a Faraday style cage or box, use isolation transformer to "hold off" any EMP, isolate your devices from the actual Faraday box using insulated stand offs, and you should be good to go. However, the antenna of the communications systems is still susceptible to EMP and flows directly into the comm equipment. There might be a RF isolation transformer for this too. Or it might be required to practice only connecting your RF antenna when you are using the equipment.

Regarding ammo cans, until I see tested proof with EMP discharge testing, that they might not be 100% safe against EMP. Primary reason is the gap between the lid and body of the can (rubber seal,) might allow EMP, if strong enough, to travel through the gap, through the rubber, and into your ammo can. A "more" protected Faraday ammo can would have aluminum foil swapped with the rubber seal. Although it wont be water proof, it would essentially be more EMP proof than the ammo can with rubber seal. Storing your electrical devices in aluminum foil inside the ammo can would help and is recommended.

Hopefully this clears some questions up and brings about some new ideas for protection.


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

Got an old microwave laying around? There ya go..


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## nadja (May 1, 2012)

The problem with using an old micro wave oven for a faraday cage, although it should work, it won't allow you to put much of anything in there. Old truck type tool boxes should work well also. I have several of these from my old framing days, and will be starting to use them in the next few days. Several things I need to put in them to protect/shield them from the elect. pulse


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## PrepperThyAngus (Sep 30, 2012)

Microwave ovens as Faraday cages will only work if the EMP used emits microwave radiation. Other frequency EMP's will penetrate it.

What are the most commonly used EMP frequencies?


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

There's a lot of scientific double-talk about EMP on the net but the words 'gamma radiation' seem to crop up a lot-
_WIKI-"Effects of an EMP device depend on a very large number of factors, including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma ray output, interactions with the Earth's magnetic field, and electromagnetic shielding of targets"_

And this bit confirms what we suspected, namely that if an EMP blows out electronics, repairs can soon be started with spare parts, so in many cases attacking with an EMP weapon might serve no useful purpose- 
_WIKI- "It has long been known that there are many ways to protect against nuclear EMP or to quickly begin repairs where protection is not practical"

Electromagnetic pulse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia_


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## KennethDNunn (Nov 13, 2012)

I believe in preparing fore the worst case scenario which would be an HEMP....as you will see it is unknown the damage that would occur....
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Dr. William R. Graham chaired the EMP Commissions for eight years and is widely considered to be the free world's foremost expert on electromagnetic pulse.

• From 1982 to 1985, he served as chair of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament.
• Under President Reagan beginning November 25, 1985 he served in the position of Deputy Administrator of NASA.
• From December 4 1985 to May 11, 1986, Graham served as Acting Administrator of NASA following the resignation of James M. Beggs.
• October 1, 1986 to become Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
• On October 16, 1986, he was sworn in as Science Advisor to President Reagan, a position he held until June 1989.

The following testimony was taken from :

Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the Committee on Homeland Security House of Representatives:
July 21, 2009

Maryland's Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett
Question and answer secession.
Mr. Bartlett: EMP attack may be a low probability; it is certainly a high-impact event. But when you have such a potential like your house burning, you buy an insurance policy. You do something that will make you whole in the event that that happens.
I would submit that in our country, we have done essentially, nothing that would make us whole, if this were to happen.
Dr. Graham, it is my understanding that electromagnetic pulse is an unavoidable accompaniment of any and every nuclear detonation. That if it occurs at ground level, that the area of the fireball and the EMP area, are not all that much different, that we have had little attention to EMP when it is a ground level attack.
But if it is at altitude, and if it is extra atmospheric, it is line of sight. A detonation 300 miles high above Nebraska, Iowa, would cover our whole country? Is that essentially correct?
Mr. Graham: Yes, with a footnote that even for a surface, or near-surface nuclear burst, if there are things like power lines or conductors going into the fireball, that fireball acts like a tremendous battery. And will drive electrical signals miles and miles beyond its perimeter, but along the line.
Mr. Bartlett: It is my understanding that in your work on the commission that you interrogated two Russian generals, who told you that the Soviets had developed, and they have enhanced EMP weapons that would produce 200 kilovolts per meter. That is correct?
Mr. Graham: Yes, that is correct.
Mr. Bartlett: That would be 100 kilovolts per meter at the margins of our country?
Mr. Graham: It depends--it is somewhat north, south dependent affect, but in some directions, yes.
Mr. Bartlett: It is my understanding that the most we have ever built and tested to is sometimes 30 and sometimes 50 kilovolts per meter. Is that correct?
Mr. Graham: Yes, that is correct. The upper figure was used earlier, and now the lower.
Mr. Bartlett: If in fact we could be exposed to 100 or 200 kilovolts per meter, protecting to 50 kilovolts per meter is little better than doing nothing, is--or 30, it is now 30. Is that correct?
Mr. Graham: Well, it is unknown as to how good the protection would be above that, because, it would be an untested regime. In general, the test, the protection could fail at the higher levels.
Mr. Bartlett: What proportion, what part of our electronic world would you expect to be affected by 200 kilovolts per meter?
Mr. Graham: Essentially, everything that wasn't in a conductive package, everything from PCs on up through power grids.
Mr. Bartlett: It would have to be in a Faraday cage and grounded if it were to survive. Is that correct?
Mr. Graham: Yes, individual components that are wrapped up in protective packages might survive it. But anything that is functional, or connected to other systems, would not.
Mr. Bartlett: In a former life, I was a scientist. I am always amazed at scientists and their ability to understate. I am now kind of a recovering scientist.
But Dr. Graham is a scientist, and he says that ``EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences.''
In other words, ``that could end life as we know it.'' Is that correct?
Mr. Graham: Certainly as we know it in the United States. I don't think North Korea would find it a shock if they had an EMP event, because, they have so little infrastructure to begin with.
But, our country has many times the population it had say in 1900. Yet, our facilities could be driven back to the pre-1900 level by an EMP attack. The country could just not support that population.
Mr. Bartlett: This has been described as a high-level EMP, robust EMP lay down, as a giant time machine that would move us back a century in technology. That is roughly correct?
Mr. Graham: Yes, maybe a little more than a century affect.
Mr. Bartlett: So, this is such a horrendous consequence. Why are we not paying more attention to it?
One of the great experts in this area, Lowell Wood, says ``it is just too hard. They don't want to deal with it.'' Is that the problem?
Mr. Graham: That is probably a better question for a social scientist to answer. But, I have heard it characterized as a low-probability, high-impact affect. The commission would not assign a probability to it."

Edit / Delete


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## Lucky Jim (Sep 2, 2012)

Hey I just thought:- even if an enemy EMP blows out sensitive electronics in our aircraft, tanks and warships and renders them useless, ordinary guns owned by soldiers and citizens will be completely unaffected..


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## KennethDNunn (Nov 13, 2012)

Lucky Jim said:


> Hey I just thought:- even if an enemy EMP blows out sensitive electronics in our aircraft, tanks and warships and renders them useless, ordinary guns owned by soldiers and citizens will be completely unaffected..


We win


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