A Green Beret’s Guide to EMP: Practical Steps to Prepare for a “Lights Out” Scenario (Part 1)

SHTF Plan ^ | 5/7/15

[Kartographer]

Ben, I’m doing this article for you as I promised, and I hope it will help you (and others) to make those decisions in the critical moments and days following an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) event. Although I had plenty of science courses in college, I am not a scientist. Certainly someone with a scientific background will comment on this article. Let me state this: Scientists, I welcome all comments, positive or negative, but please make them proactive. These articles are forums where the writers are “emcees” that introduce topics for discussion and present some salient points. You guys and gals are the ones who pick up the topics and run the football in for the TD.

We need to be “SME’s” as we called them in the Army: Subject Matter Experts. One of my personal goals for SHTF is not just to draw a large readership base; it is to help readers develop themselves and also develop one another. Let the site become an ORP (objective rally point) where everyone can plan, exchange ideas, and attain better levels of awareness and preparation for the times to come. In this light, there is a lot of knowledge out there awaiting use. Take the knowledge you amass, step up to the plate, and take the swing: do the best you can with what you have. And if it isn’t perfect, so what? You give it your best shot and then adjust fire from there.

[Red Steel]

Yeah Faraday cage.

[DirtyPigpen]

I put a flash drive with digital copies of important paperwork, solar panels, comm gear, rechargable batteries, tablet, a few items for the kids a multiband receiver and a few other items in a WP bag and put that in an ammo can. I removed the rubber o-ring in the lid of the can and fashion a metal gasket out of some old lead sheeting I had. Then taped up the lid with duct tape to help seal out moisture.

[Iron Munro]

A Good Automatic Movement Watch

I'd like to find one at an affordable price.

I've been looking for one for a long time.

[Colorado Doug]

I’ll take something with an older diesel with mechanical injection and a manual transmission, parked on a hill. No EMP could take that out of service. At most one might need to do something with the fuel shut-off solenoid.

[Hawthorn]

>> 1966 Ford Falcon with an old 289 Hypo <<

Not very useful when you run outta gas and find that all gas stations are shut down, because there will be no electricity to run their pumps.

[Paladin2]

Sundials work well on a sunny day

[Crim]

I got a ‘73 pontiac in the garage for just that reason....plus it’s a road beast.

[Blueflag]

A microwave only stops EMF down to the wavelength of the radio waves generated by the magnatron of that microwave. The wavelength of the highest energy pulse of an exoatmosphric EMP is much shorter than a cooking microwave.

Net: the gaps around the doors and also the the little holes that let you see you food cooking will let the EMP fry what’s inside.

Items in a paper bag or box completely wrapped with aluminum foil are better protected.

A Charles Chips can might be a great choice with more capacity than most microwaves.

[blackdog]

There is a company called Insul-Fab. They make a metalized sheet of plastic which is laminated. It comes in rolls like wallpaper. You overlap the edges and apply it like wallpaper to metal studs. The studs you apply a big copper fender washer at each screw to attach to the metal. You run the stuff floor and ceiling too, making sure to overlap the conductive side to each. This makes a Tempest or shielded room good to about 80db. You feed the room with an isolation transformer and ground the whole thing to a grounding rod ten feet into the ground. Don't forget a steel door with RFI gasketing and EMI / RFI attenuating vents for the air supply.

The CIA and NSA build this into their offices. They put sheet rock right over top so it looks like an office. A company called DonTek in Suburban Philadelphis makes a mesh which is stainless steel, silver plated, and carbon black coated that sandwiched between two layers of glass for the windows. It will also stop EMP, EMI, RFI problems.

I used to buid shielded rooms.

[Crim]

Yeah cuz there wont be any gas left in any of our other cars or anything like that....LOL.

I will have plenty of gas to bug out to my hidey hole.

[X-spurt]

Good book on this, One Second After.

[djf]

I am more and more convinced that if the lights go out, NO MATTER HOW WELL PREPARED YOU ARE, you are dead within six months or so.

The reason?

We have how many, maybe over 100 Fukushimas right here in our own back yard.

[Blueflag]

Also metal trash cans with attention paid to seals and handle holes are an easy large scale EMP shield. Just put everything in paper bags or boxes as a dielectric to insulate them from the can itself.

Think simple and solid. Lots of ways to block all three types of EMP.

[max americana]

Thanks for the info. Does copper plating also block EMP’s? Just curious if it’s a myth or not.

[Pontiac]

How about those hand pumps that you see on the portable tanks that farmers and landscapers have in the back of their pickup trucks.

Would they have the lift necessary to pull gas out of the bottom of a buried tank?

I know if the tank level is below 14.5 feet (standard atmospheric pressure) no pump will pull it up.

[miliantnutcase]

Cummins, solid front axle. Good call.

[Kartographer]

"What are the odds for EMP when on an elevator with a beautiful blonde?"

I don't know what your odds are, but as for Laz's odds? Well he's screwed!

[Red Steel]

A link that appears to be a good read about EMP myths and how the Inverse-Square law applies or doesn’t.

“EMP Myths
by Jerry Emanuelson, B.S.E.E.”

http://www.futurescience.com/emp/EMP-myths.html

[dljordan]

“Not very useful when you run outta gas and find that all gas stations are shut down, because there will be no electricity to run their pumps.”

Not to mention that you’ll be the target for every zombie out there.

[semaj]

"If the ammo cans and gun safe don’t keep my electronics safe ill be screwed."

To be effective, the cage in which you put your electronics needs to be electrically grounded. A 8 or 10 gauge wire attached to a 6 ft grounding rod sunk into the earth should absorb just about anything an EMP might deliver.