Posted on 09/06/2009 7:04:14 PM PDT by immadashell
I have just finished reading William R. Forstchen's new novel One Second After. Briefly, it is about the instantaneous breakdown of American way of life as the result of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which disables the nation's electrical grid as well as all sophisticated electrical components in cars (they stop), planes (they crash), telecomunications of every sort, etc. leaving the population in a world similar to that of the Eighteenth Century. Shortages of every variety create societal strains, chaos, death and destruction in a matter of weeks and months. Forstchen's book (with a forward written by Newt Gingrich), while fiction, creates a scenario which can happen to us today, since the technology already exists. The possibility of this devastation has been largely ignored by our politicians and media, and, to a lesser extent, by the military. Only a very small proportion of our citizens has ever heard about EMP. Even fewer have taken measures to deal with it. Experts on the subject have no doubt about whether we will have to eventually face such an attack. They only question when it will occur.
After reading this book, my first thought was we spend billions (potentially trillions) of dollars preparing for a hypothetical calamity we are powerless over like global warming and yet ignore preparing for this ultimate weapon of asymmetrical warfare.
I highly recommend this very frightening but readable new book. It is science fiction (#1 on Amazon) today but could be reality One Second After.
Be sure to pick up an electronic copy from Kindle. ;)
have you ever had a lightning strike on your your house? It will fry your pc and and tv right off.
Magnetic waves are of less concern to electronic componentsJames Clerk Maxwell turns over in his grave (as internet blogger denies magnetic induction effects). Next. I'm done here.
have you ever had a lightning strike on your your house? It will fry your pc and and tv right off.That's not under discussion here.
Next.
(Besides, you never asked what *I* had get hit and survive. We're talking system level here, not some little consumer TV set either.)
Next ...
I didnt find them to be either. Basically, it explains what it is.
But I could be all wet. It's not my field. I know enough about RF electromagnetic radiation to get an Extra Class Ham ticket, which means I know I can feed a WHOLE LOT less energy than the dreaded EMP into a small piece of metal in the air and it can reach the other side of the world. Which makes the thought of what could happen in a very high energy pulse just a little bit scary (indeed, a mere lightning bolt causes me some concern).
On the other hand, the usual characteristics of an electromagnetic wave which make atmospheric propagation possible don't exist in a pulse unless and until it approaches the theoretical perfect form. I'm no physicist, but I don't believe the phenomena thought to be possible using known technology can be described as near perfect - so it would be radiation at a somewhat limited (super high frequency) wavelength range roughly defined by it's duration, plus it's harmonics, the strength of those finite components reduced by distance and atmospheric absorption in accordance with the usual earthly conventions. Only a perfect pulse would be universally resonant and become the ultimate destroyer.
And anybody who has actually worked with todays components realize that you aren’t worth squat, despite your sorry quotes.
Magnetic fields aren’t of a concern to properly isolated and grounded equipment. I deal with 100KvA equipment. And you?
In the book he talks about people on the other side of mountains having electricity, post EMP. Not walls, but mountains and other geographical features provided protection in his scenario.
I know quite a bit about this subject, because the radars I work on are sited in less than optimum sites in the Southwest. My radar that I am personally signed for is sited at 5995 feet above sea level on a mountain that requires a halo system in order to meet the minimum standards for grounding. My replacement keyer tube for an AN/FPS-16 radar is in a Farraday cage built by BAE. You want to play this game? You wish you knew something about this. Anything in a Farraday cage is isolated from EMP because it takes the energy created and grounds it. Magnetic energy matters little, unless it is concentrated enough to develop potential. EMP can't do that in anything but the most controlled conditions.
DITTO, Obama, the Great Destroyer!
Well, let’s just say that no one will play Trivial Pursuit with me more than once.
I'm 39 as well, and just started learning canning today.
This is very much like Alas, Babylon. I haven't read it in over 40 years, but if I recall that was nuclear war which effected certain areas more than others due to fallout etc. The infrastructure wasn't as compromised as completely as it was in One Second After.
In One Second Later one of the important barter tools was ammunition. Towards the end the going rate for a dead squirrel was five bullets -- a rabbit was worth 13. MRE's are good IF you can get to them or they can get to you and the military doesn't run out of them.
Several studies have been done by the military and efforts have been made to brief the politico's. The bureaucrats would much rather spend our hard earned dollars on a consensus sure thing like global warming as opposed to a scientifically proven and demonstrated real thing like EMP.
There's a good chance that the secondary side of your ignition coil would be melted down.
Mark
Slim Pickins (I think that is how it is spelled) was the actor.
In the Afterword to One Second After there is an involved technical description of what happens to the emitted gamma radiation when it interacts with the upper atmosphere. The theory is better described there than anything I could pass on. The footnotes to the Afterword provide additional sources of information.
Thank you. I’ll have to check it out.
FWIW, the characters in Alas Babylon did not find out anything about the war, who won, or how badly the US was hurt until the very end of the book. Last couple of pages.
The normal things one should do to protect from lightning (disconnecting antennas and power, for example) would seem to be adequate protection in many cases.
Of course the risk to equipment isn't as simple as measuring the single factor of energy density as you know. I think the doomsayers assume near ideal conditions that don't, in fact, exist. Rather, there are numerous factors, both mitigating and amplifying, that are being ignored. Altogether hard to predict in any case, but averaging to something much less than advertised.
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