EMP, Welcome to 1880

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Captjim_NM

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In years past I enjoyed several conversations with an engineer at Los Alamos National labs. This gentelman wrote the standards for radiation hardening, bonding and grounding for space hardware. I followed those conversations with additional conversations from the engineers at the VLA. Basicaly, they stated an EMP attack would take this country back to 1880. All semiconductor devices and transformers would be destroyed. The only gasoline engines left running would be something of 1940's vintage using breaker points ignition and a generator. Right now the lead time for large transformers like the power grid uses is over 1 year. Without computer control the manufacture of those transformers would be impossible. Their best sugestion for life after an EMP would be to buy a horse!
 
Cap Jim,

Did he ever talk about what level of shielding would be required to really protect modern electronics? What level dB & what frequency? I've read the mil spec, and it looks like it was written back then by EMCO only to the limits of what their shielded rooms could be built and tested to. For example, it was spec'd only to 10 GHz range, and we know E1 is wild out there. It's probably been 10 years since I read the spec, and personal conversations would shed much greater light on it.
 
No set numbers is the discussion, just wrap electronics in two ESDS bags and store in grounded metal box with bonded tight fitting lid. Be sure the inside of the box was bare metal and I would add several layers of alumnuim foil with the ESDS bags. We discussed a 90 to 95 % fatality rate with an EMP event and the end of mankind as we know it. I figure no sense prepping for an EMP event.
 
No set numbers is the discussion, just wrap electronics in two ESDS bags and store in grounded metal box with bonded tight fitting lid. Be sure the inside of the box was bare metal and I would add several layers of alumnuim foil with the ESDS bags. We discussed a 90 to 95 % fatality rate with an EMP event and the end of mankind as we know it. I figure no sense prepping for an EMP event.

What about home-made Faraday cages, like metal trashcans lined with Styrofoam and sealed with metal/reflective tap? Any word on that being effective?
 
Once I read / learned about the amount of destruction an EMP / CME could cause, I stopped prepping for it. What good to save some electronics if there is not national grid / cell system / radio / ham / or other electrical dependent systems. Trust me, you do not want to be the only house in the neighborhood with power. The neighbors will kill you to take over your system and then kill each other to get control of the system. Prep for the things you can control, like living WITHOUT any electricity.
 
first off - wishing for a nuke incident that would most likely lead to a full nuke war is just about the stupidest thing around >>> dumbazzes that watched toooo much sci fi "let's bug out to the mall" ........

the Jeremiah Johnsons wanna be would be sooooooooooo disappointed - with just an EMP countries like the US would be set back and inconvenienced >> but hardly set back a 100 years - technology wouldn't disappear much less all the machinery & equipment coupled with it >>> just more wanna be wet dreamers that need to grow up and start dealing with real life ...
 
first off - wishing for a nuke incident that would most likely lead to a full nuke war is just about the stupidest thing around >>> dumbazzes that watched toooo much sci fi "let's bug out to the mall" ........

the Jeremiah Johnsons wanna be would be sooooooooooo disappointed - with just an EMP countries like the US would be set back and inconvenienced >> but hardly set back a 100 years - technology wouldn't disappear much less all the machinery & equipment coupled with it >>> just more wanna be wet dreamers that need to grow up and start dealing with real life ...
a 100 years-about the time of WW1? I think it would go back a lot further than that, once the electronics and electricity is shut down it will be more like the middle ages for most folk-I have heard people say as much and thats only after a power cut, shut down the whole technology thing and they will be dropping like flies.
the machinery might still exist but not the manufacturing to supply spare parts or even the infrastructure to deliver spare
parts.
our modern civilisation is based on electricity, once the power grid which is very fragile goes down then for most people it will be the stone age.
 
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You can fix vehicles and electronics damaged by an electromagnetic pulse if you have the right parts and tools, but it's easy enough to protect them from being damaged in the first place as well. An EMP wouldn't knock society back to the stone ages.
 
only if you had the right parts and plenty of them, an EMP will shut down anything electrical and electronic that is not protected which most of it wont be as it wont be expected.
once the power grid shuts down so does the supply chain.
prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
 
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You can fix vehicles and electronics damaged by an electromagnetic pulse if you have the right parts and tools, but it's easy enough to protect them from being damaged in the first place as well. An EMP wouldn't knock society back to the stone ages.
No, just back to the Victorian age
 
Not even the victorian period. There'd still be people with advanced technology who either protected their electronics or hired an expert to repair them, probably using livestock or manual labor as currency. It'd be an odd mixture of olden days combined with modern creature comforts. It wouldn't really be "like" any one particular period in history. It'd be a brand new era with brand new rules and customs.

There'd be odd sights such as people with nightvision goggles and radios riding on horseback with an AR-15. Or steam-powered pick-up trucks with oil lamps hanging off them...Not exactly victorian, but not exactly modern. It'd just be...weird.
 
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any EMP over here will take the country back to 1750 prior to the industrial revolution.
most people cannot live without electricity and only those who can will survive.
I think I could make my lawnmower run. Does anyone remember plugs and points? Big Paul if I could take you back to 1750 or farther I think it would take at least a day to get that big happy smile off your face.
 
An EMP would be the ultimate disaster of disasters. Don't fool yourself. Our countries are run on "systems". Food, water, medication, transportation. Without these systems, many people will die and most will suffer greatly.
Yes Athena, but we would loose much more if we lost the Goddess of wisdom.
 

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