Mariner said, in Post #31, “Only stupid people believe man-made EMP, more than several miles from the source, will cause any damage whatsoever.”
Starfish Prime caused effects 900 miles away in Hawaii - well beyond “several miles” from the source. I’m guessing that you think that everyone in Hawaii that experienced those effects was stupid.
This article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Project_K_nuclear_tests has more details than the prior one about the EMP effects of Soviet Test 184. I’m guessing that you also think that everyone in the Soviet Union that experienced those effects was stupid.
You know, what is *actually* stupid is spouting off as if you’re an authority on a subject when, in reality, you know somewhere between zip and zilch about it. I don’t pretend to be an expert on EMP, but I do know how to access publicly available information about it, so as to learn. Maybe I’m being a bit bold here, but I’m going to suggest that you do something similar to what I’ve done. When you get more information, then you’ll be in a better position to give everyone an informed opinion, rather than just casually dismissing something that you don’t actually understand.
If you had read the referenced material on Wiki, you would have found:
” Q: What about failure of power lines from other tests? A: I have no information on that,
with the exception of the military generator plant I already spoke of.
q. Q: Is the north-south and east-west orientation of lines is important? A: Definitely yes.
They are unambiguously tied to the geomagnetic field.”
The military diesel generator plant was nearly directly below the blast.
On the telephone lines:
“Q: Was the damage done to fuses only? A: Fuses were associated with air-suspended lines
only. The cable system switched itself off; resetting required manual operation. The line was
equipped with relays and were designed to switch off if they experienced a power surge of more
than 30 percent than the specification required.”
Required manual reset of fuses.
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/Loborev.txt
As for Starfish Prime, less than 1% of streetlights were affected by the surge in Hawaii. And that was a 1.4 MT air blast at 250miles up.
The people in Hawaii didn’t experience any effect, they just noticed a few lights went out.
Much ado about nothing.
Another Note...
While the consensus is that Starfish Prime caused the limited streetlight outage in Hawaii, it is far from a proven conclusion.
The most widely accepted theory within DOD is that it was the bright light from the explosion that triggered photovoltaic switches on the already overloaded lines, causing them to switch off/on to quickly and therefore burning the fuses.
NOT the EMP.
And, yes, I do have some expertise. Though it’s limited.
I have 10 years in military communications to include several years in the MEECN network and over a year as a DCA facility auditor. That included training in the effects of EMP from the DOD point of view...
The necessary grounding, shielding etc. As well as expected practical effects at distances.
Of course they could have been lying to us, or perhaps they didn’t know what they were talking about.
I have no way to independently verify that. But I suspect they were expert and genuinely wanted those responsible for carrying out the nations essential communications to be prepared for the likely outcome.