There is an 'EMP' device (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) that will put out such a (relatively)
large pulse of EM that all unshielded electronics will be burned out. But it does work like
a bomb, not a beam. If something like that had been used, there would have been more
knocked out than the shuttle :)
And it would have registered on instruments all over the continent. On radios or TVs it would
have registered as a blast of static, or they would have just gone dead.