Posted on 02/23/2012 8:49:06 AM PST by chessplayer
Most Americans do not know this, but a single EMP attack could potentially wipe out most of the electronics in the United States and instantly send this nation back to the 1800s. If a nuclear bomb was exploded high enough in the atmosphere over the middle part of the country, the electromagnetic pulse would fry electronic devices from coast to coast. The damage would be millions of times worse than 9/11. Just imagine a world where nobody has power, most cars will not start, the Internet has been fried, the financial system is offline indefinitely, nobody can make any phone calls and virtually all commerce across the entire country is brought to a complete stop. A nation that does not know how to live without technology would be almost entirely stripped of it at that point. Yes, this could really happen. An EMP attack is America's "Achilles heel", and everyone around the world knows it. It is only a matter of time before someone uses an EMP weapon against us, and at this point we are pretty much completely unprepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at endoftheamericandream.com ...
THANK YOU. (caps intentional)
Basic electronic theory would suggest that proper grounding of all electric components would be more important than shielding material.
I'd suggest EMP proofing your house by making sure you can survive an April Thunder/Lightning storm. BTW....I keep my 2m and VHF/UHF in my war box....a .50 cal. ammo can with styrofoam inserts.
Mr. mm told me that a steel 55 gallon drum could also act as a Faraday cage.
I did talk to a friend of my son’s who understands the electrical grid and apparently the problem with the EMP is that the magnetic field that sets up along the wires can extend out and connect with other electronics and cause electrical surges in them that might be too much for them to handle. (in a nutshell)
I also understand that it’s often more the fragility of the electronics these days than the strength of the pulse itself.
5000 feet of high altitude should work just fine.
feel the force you do?
EMP doesn’t blow fuses, it blows chips.
The bomb doesn’t scare me it’s as the article pointed out the EMP effect and it’s aftermath that scare me. In 2003 there was a power surge in Ohio which caused a power outage that affected some 45 million. And that was just a malfunction with no actual physical damage to the power infrastructure.
Toss in the physical damage by a bomb plus an enhanced EMP effect, what do you think you will have?
From Alamogordo in 1945 to Nevada Test Site in 1992, we have tested EMP effects.
However, I would like to see warhead yield reliability live fire exercise over some Middle Eastern terrorist facilities, command and control, nuclear processing facilities, etc. ;)
I remember the first time I saw Connections, some 30 years ago, how terrifying the prospect of losing electricity was, and the "technology traps" that threaten to close in on us at any time.....this was really well-done...and I can only imagine it's even worse today, with our over-reliance on technology:
IMHO, Connections should be mandatory viewing in all schools.
Well then I guess we should go first
Right you are. Look up “Argus tests”. A megaton sized device was exploded over the Pacific and had exactly the effect you mentioned. BIG area affected!
Single bomb would need to be 250 miles up, about where Iran has been orbiting their payloads.
A righteous shooting gallery of entitlement zombies?!
Utter BS! Assuming an attack does not mean dozens of strikes.
No, for EMP protection you have to have a complete conductive enclosure. Although it would depend on the strength of the EMP spike when it gets to your home and the types of electronics. A metal roof is probably better than no metal roof.
Close in to the blast would be bad. The rest of the country - you're right. Replace fuses, etc etc etc. Cars will still start. Generators will still run. Most power will still run, or will be restored quickly. Lots of critical infrastructure is already hardened, or hardened enough to survive. And so on and so on.
But, it's a lot easier and more fun for people with Armageddon Fantasies to believe the worst and scare everyone else.
BTW, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but I *am* an Electrical Engineer.
No, he just went to that website where you can type stuff in and it gets translated into “Yodaspeak”...:)
And basic electronics theory in your case would be wrong. Circuit breakers and power strips don’t offer protection against an EMP spike. EMP and lightning are not the same.
Circuitry can be designed with protection from EMP but most civilian products are not because it increases the cost.
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