Electromagnetic Pulse: An Avoidable Disaster

GOPUSA ^ | January 4, 2005 | Paul M. Weyrich

[Inge_CAV]

Is that the Duramax Diesel? I know a little about the International engines but not the ones used in GM trucks.

Military ground power units should already be hardened against EMP affects. The engine I am thinking of was a Lycoming air cooled design. It was almost the same as the engines used in some small aircraft except it was not certified as airworthy.

"I've loaned it out to dairy farmers when their barn ventilation fans go down. The cows look like they're behind prop wash from C-130's. Tails straight out from the velocity and volume. LOL!

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[DainBramage]

No it's not. Just ask underscoreJim

Now you did it. He's like letting the gimp out of the box.

[Nowhere Man]

Uhm........not so. The metal chasis on the frame is poorly grounded. Sure there is some carbon in the synthetic rubber tires to do some good, but from a technical standpoint to techno-geeks, your car is just a giant capacitor during an EMP and it will go "POP" when the pulse charges it up. It cannot discharge that fast.

Hmmm, I often wonder about that. I know many cars from the 1960's had grounding strips behind them, I remember seeing them when I was a kid. I'm into the post nuclear war role playing game, "The Morrow Project," and this topic comes up from time to time where we get into a grat debate over it. One of my gamer friends had a link to an article where EMP's effect is overstated although things like the power grid and anything with a huge antenna would be game. I guess the moral of the story is if you are that paranoid, buy an extra computer module, wrap it in aluminum foil, place it in a Faraday cage and there ya go. Then if something bad happens and it is fried, take out the old one and put in the new one and there ya go.

I've been hit by lightning while flying and can tell you that energy will really do some interesting things. It made pinholes where it hit, but then inside it made what I can only describe as ball lightning which would seek corners where it would sort of oscillate and then dim. It lasted about five full seconds before the skin managed to discharge in the air.

How did it affect the electronics in the plane? Just curious.

[blackdog]

It seemed to have less effect than my second com radio when I transmit. When I key the mike on the Narco Com 11, the entire avionics panel goes innop on guidance reception for as long as the transmission and about two seconds after. If you're chatting a lot with center, you'll miss an intercept real easy. Center tells me that everytime I key the push to talk, my squawk disappears along with altitude reporting mode C. Radio is clear as a bell though and not a spit of static, so it's a keeper.

The lighning strike didn't do much permanent damage except reskinning a section of fuselage. Not a single breaker popped. I think it melted the wiring in my pitot heater though because the next time I turned it on it exploded, again though, perfect breakers. I have never had a single breaker ever pop on an airplane! And let's face it, they are endless in number. Sometimes I wonder just what would kick one out?

[blackdog]

The airforce used to run a lot of those Cesna centerline thrust pusher/pullers. That was one noisy bird to be inside! The mechanics never worked on the Lycomings, they just replaced em. I think they were Six Cylinder 400 CID engines. Somewhere around 300 HP per engine. The engine swapping phenom produced a lot of "serviceable but not airworthy" engines during the 70's. They used em on airboats, television sets for creating high winds, and as you said, many other uses. Today a run-out engine core fetches $6,000 to $10,000 a copy. How times change!

[longtermmemmory]

What can civilians do short of wearing tinfoil hats?

What does the military do to "harden" their stuff from EMP?

(so I guess buying a classic car with points instead of electronics would be a good idea...)

[Inge_CAV]

"The airforce used to run a lot of those Cesna centerline thrust pusher/pullers. That was one noisy bird to be inside!" Mixmasters!

"Today a run-out engine core fetches $6,000 to $10,000 a copy. How times change!"

And not to mention what a rebuilt engine costs.

[StopGlobalWhining]

Roscoe Bartlett is, and has been for a long time, a national asset. We ignore his wise advice at our own risk.

[lainde]

BTTT

[G.Mason]

"But you'd need a lot more than a stick to relieve me and my family of any food stocks ;-)."

I hear you, loud and clear. You, like I, will do what it takes to protect and survive. ;)

[G.Mason]

"The real question here is............What will the recount on the electronic voting machines read in Ohio at the time of the nuclear blast, and will it throw the election as Haliburton desired when they launched a missile from Pakistan to prevent Hillary from winning, on November 8th 2008, handing it to the evil republicans once again?"

LOL ... Excellent!

Sad, I doubt even that will unblock the constipation that has plagued the Congress with regard to the "filibustering" over judicial appointments. ;)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You techie diehards out there may want to consider a second option........Change FCC, UL, EU, and CISPR standards to phase in all devices be manufactured to withstand EMP, including your VCR, coffee pot, and automobile so that economy of scale makes EMP affordable and implemented over the lifetime of a few cycles of consumer goods. It could be done without a national dog and pony show in the house and senate.

I would prefer a tax break for companies which spend money on EMP-proofing their products and tax breaks for individuals and companies buying EMP-proof equipment. There would be a dog and pony show, but in the end, the tax-breaks would create a manufacturing incentive and a market for EMP-proof items without having to deal with more regulation.

[blackdog]

All that would do is artificially inflate the costs. If you give tax breaks or credits, the market adjusts to that. It's much like the deductability of home mortgage interest. That alone inflates the price of housing by 20%. Make college expenses tax deductable and college tuition will adjust upward 28% in a year, matching the tax rate. Give tax breaks for electric cars and the cars will be crappy and expensive.

Give tax breaks for friggin nothing and nobody. It's just really vote buying and favors in return for campaign contributions to this corporation or that industry.

[GOP_1900AD]

Shoot down. Then retaliate. Scale of NMD to be able to do the first. Scale up strategic forces for the second.

[_Jim]

Radioactive: The problem is the GRID.

And just WHAT preceeded 'the grid'? (This is a technical question meant to plumb the depths of your technical and historical knowledge insofar as reviewing the development of the present day elctrical generation and distribution system.)

Methinks you don't know and are simply and mindlessly parroting something someone else mouthed ...

[null and void]

See post # 75.

Radioactive asserts that the grid can be taken down.

Who better that you to set him right?

[Radioactive]

Methinks you don't know and are simply and mindlessly parroting something someone else mouthed ...

You thinks WRONG!!!!!!!

I've had experience with the "GRID" and I know of what I speak.

Running extreme voltages at low amps and then transforming them into higher amp lower voltages resluts in losses.

Just because Tesla invented the way we provide electricity does not mean there is a better way.

Small electrical generation systems are far better than huge centralized systems because if the huge system goes down......then huge amounts of people do not have electricity.

I'm for home genereation of electricty...........there are many ways to generate electricity that does not require massive expenditures of capitol. Big money means big bills....and with all the outages that have been happening......well.....If you think the GRID is not the problem...then you are mindlessly trolling...........