Posted on 09/05/2011 5:56:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
“A single large EMP pulse generated at 10,000 feet above the heartland would change life in the US for decades. This is no joking matter.”
Absolutely. Death from disease, dehydration, starvation and marauding bands will be astronomical. There will be no civilization as we know it, no one coming to the rescue of most people for who knows how long, no transportation or communication to speak of. VERY primitive as all of the above grinds quickly to a halt, with NO capacity to rebuild or regrow even a modicum of industrial infrastructure for many years, if ever, and an even more bleak prognosis for computer/telecom regrowth. A nation overpopulated with unskilled people grown lazy and spoiled, on multiple meds no longer available, Balkinized, unprepared - it will be far worse than a traditional nuclear attack, a death neither mercifully quick and painless, nor one where the unfolding degeneration can be halted or reversed.
What happens to the chips?
I am one of the 5. Thanks for the tip.
How reliable is this solar powered bat/generator? Are there better units?
Much of what we’ve learned about EMP came through the Starfish Prime nuclear test in the Pacific, which took place just a few months before the test ban treaty took effect. (The Soviets had an EMP test that fried buried electric cables, so yeah, this is bad.) As for solar storms, look up the Carrington Event of 1859 but know that all we had at the time were telegraph systems.
Nobody knows for sure what effect an EMP burst would have on modern electronics. Would it kill your car’s computer? Your Blackberry? Your digital watch? We just don’t know.
What IS expected, however, is that our power grid (which is already wobbly) would take a nasty beating. The induced current surge would most likely fry relays and transformers and we don’t have enough spares to replace them! Power transformers aren’t made in the U.S. anymore and must be ordered from overseas, with a very long wait time. Now think about ordering 3,000 of them from ... say ... China, to get our electricity back on. And please expedite the shipment? Not a happy prospect!
Without the power grid, there is no food refrigeration and that means no more perishable food in the stores. Take out vehicle computers and we have no trucks to transport grain from the Midwest, or medicine, or clothing, or fuel, or anything else for that matter. In other words, welcome back to 1850!
Estimated casualties from an EMP attack on the east coast of the U.S. are seen at around 20 to 50 million within three months. With multiple attacks that carpet the entire North American continent, quadruple that.
Iran has already tested their ability to launch a Scud from a ship, done in the Caspian Sea where our subs couldn’t watch, and tested detonating a missile warhead at high altitude. They’ve discussed EMP at length in some of their military journals, so they are fully aware of the situation. Be afraid, and do some research. Good luck.
I honestly think the present consensus government doesn’t mind if we suffer an EMP attack. It’s a great pretext for martial law, a lot of dependent-class Americans will die, and our debt problems will suddenly look a lot more manageable - without (they think) any significant impact to the lifestyles or perquisites of the existing hierarchy.
BIG JAKE PARAPHRASING!
to richard boone... your fault my fault no body’s fault. i kill you...
just like the dead terrorist.
hehehe
t
What happens to the chips?Have you ever installed new memory in a computer? They warn you to be very careful about static electricity, because even a small "spark" will destroy high-density integrated circuits (like CPUs or memory).
An EMP would produce the same effect. It produces an electrical discharge within the chip. Because it's such a small area, it produces a small discharge, but it would probably be enough to burn out the microscopic elements in the chip.
The larger the path the pulse has to travel, the larger the "shock". Things like high-tension electrical lines (the kind that carry electricity to your house) and railroad tracks would receive huge electrical shocks; enough to set things on fire.
In fact, in 1859 (if memory serves) there was a huge solar storm, which produced such a huge electrical current flow on the newly-developed telegraph lines that it started fires in the telegraph machines.
You might be better off planning for a "low tech" lifestyle.This!
And EMP attack would be about as bad it is could get for this country. It would (if done correctly) instantly destroy the entire power grid, just about every vehicle made since the 1980s, and any other devices with computer-type chips in them. Not only that, but any spare parts (unless they were stored in grounded metal boxes) would also be destroyed, so there wouldn't be any way of getting any of the cars, computers or power stations running again.
Even the things that survived would probably be useless due to the loss of infrastructure. For example, the trains might still be able to run (they are presumably pretty rugged), but unless there was a way to get diesel fuel to the trains, they would be stuck.
Is this theory or has it been demonstrated? All those above-ground tests in the 50s and below ground after that... EMP was measured?
When you are ready it get rid of old laptops, PCs, CB radios, etc., just wrap them in a few layers of aluminum foil alternating with cardboard or plastic.
In case of EMP attack, they will be quite useful.
Likewise, wrap emergency radios, SW, CBs, etc.
My concern with ethanol is alcohol's attraction for moisture. If any container is less than air tight, the alcohol picks up the moisture from the air. Ten percent alcohol in a fuel mix means a lot of potential water.
When you are ready it get rid of old laptops, PCs, CB radios, etc., just wrap them in a few layers of aluminum foil alternating with cardboard or plastic. In case of EMP attack, they will be quite useful.That will do it? Alternating layers of aluminum foil and cardboard or plastic? Really?
That's very good to know.
As far as I know, if you unplug your backup system / small electronics and (I’ll catch some flack for this) wrap each component completely in aluminum foil, in effect you’ve created a faraday cage, and what’s inside will be fine.
I think.
Would the well pump be down to far to be affected? of is it the electronics on the surface, the infrastructure that you are refering to?
As I have posted here on multiple occasions I have used 3+ year old gasoline in my Nissan pickup. The gasoline had been treated twice with Stabil, and was yellowed but with no separation or visible deposits. There was also no performance difference until I pulled a trailer up a steep hill (7% grade) and then there was noticeable pinging. So I will have to separately store an octane enhancer of some kind. Also my two-stroke boat motor has three year old treated premix in it right now and doesn't seem to mind it in the least. The plugs look fine, too.
Gasoline that uses ethanol to meet octane rating will deteriorate octane-wise much quicker than the ethanol-free blends I buy. Plus there is the phase separation problem.
I got that info from some EE on a FR thread a while back.
You may want to ground the outer layer of foil. For example, put all of your old wrapped electronics in a metal can and ground a the can to a water pipe with a piece of wire.
Military electronics have been shielded from EMP for a long time. It was a design requirement.
Thanks to both of you. This is a good starting point for my own research. I’m responsible for disaster recovery in my server room and we do have some old computers we could do this with.
I know, if the infrastructure is all gone it will hardly matter, but still, it doesn’t hurt to have some functioning equipment in any event.
And then, on the home front, especially for radios...
Is this theory or has it been demonstrated? All those above-ground tests in the 50s and below ground after that... EMP was measured?Both the U.S. and the Soviets tested space-based nuclear explosions, and both damaged civilian infrastructure in the process. Wikipedia has more information.
I'm sure the military has good information on this, but I don't know to what extent they've made it public. It is possible to protect electronics, at least to some extent, and this is done in various industries that deal with electrically "noisy" environments, and the military (which is specifically concerned with EMP survivability).
Sorry, I don't have any good information on exactly how much damage would be caused by various-sized bombs at various altitudes.
just wrap them in a few layers of aluminum foil alternating with cardboard or plastic.I'm not sure that this is good advice. What you are describing is a big capacitor, and I'm not sure that's really what you want.
In practice, I believe that a metal box (ideally copper) with a tight-fitting lid and no holes or gaps, attached with a single heavy copper wire to a good ground (copper rod hammered into the ground, or copper water line coming in from underground) would work well.
But I'm not an expert.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.