The EMP protector

The 2nd most prominent attack on the US is EMP(ElectroMagnetic Pulse). A.K.A, It will knock out ALL complex electronics.(anything with a circuit board). If you read this will discover what EMP is and how to prevent it from effecting you.

Step 1 EMP and what it is.

EMP is a form of Radio waves. It WILL permenatly knock out all electronics with circuit boards. Yet, as powerful as it is,it does NOT effect humans(or other living substances).

Comments

[PaddyO66]

The best thing to do is simply to have equipment that is highly resistant to the nasty effects of EMPs. The US military did extensive testing of EMP effects during the early-to-mid 1960s.

Different portable radio sets (walkie talkies) were tested, for one thing. The first-generation transistor sets (the PRC-77) were found to have the best survivability. They held out when even tube (PRC-6) and hybrid (PRC-25) sustained EMP damage. The early types of Germanium transistors that were used in the PRC-77 were overbuilt (and also very inaccurately manufactured, but that's another story) and so were hardy enough to withstand EMPs. Todays Mosfet and CMOS technology is extremely fragile, when it comes to EMPS.

The knowledge gleaned from the military tests of the 1960s led to the development of "military-spec" IC chips, which, in theory, should also be able to hold up fairly well. But the best bet, aside from lining the walls of your home with steel mesh, and hoping for the best, (and not having your family send you off to the loony-bin) is to have an old PRC-77 handy as a survival set.

[TheMadScientist]

lets see... oh yeah, gotta comment this page too... uhh, the mesh doesn't need to be grounded... it works perfectly fine without grounding...

[ry25920]

If it's not grounded, it's useless.

[The Lightning Stalker]

     It depends on the wavelength and the size of the cage.

[Sky_Marshal]

So true, if the wave is smaller than the distance between the mesh's wires, the wave goes right through unimpeded

[Polymorph]

1/2 wavelength will do. The slots act like 1/2 wavelength dipole antennas.

So make sure the joins between walls of your faraday cage are bonded electrically all along the edge.

[Nyxius]

if you use a mesh then you are relying on diffraction to stop the wave...only partially effective since long distance waves, like the kind you're talking about, experience frequency scattering, with the effects becoming more noticeable with increased range.  If a solid sheet is used the effect is much more effective, since there are more free electrons available.  It also blocks a much larger range of frequencies.   The Faraday effect relies on canceled field effect to work, therefore grounding of any sort is unessential.  Grounding only improves performance in extremely intense blasts.  Blasts of such intensity would probably kill you (your brain does use electrons/circuits and is slightly susceptible because of that)...so...no need to worry.

[radikled]

would a shipping container work as a good cage ????

[Polymorph]

The problem with a shipping container is that any slot or opening, even just a sliver between two sheets of metal, is essentially an open hole for any frequency at which it is a 1/2 wavelength or multiple of.

So to be really effective against EMP, which is very wideband by nature, you need to get some of that conductive gasket material to seal all the way around the doors.

I've made a small faraday cage with an old metal shelled cooler. I covered the non-metal portions with copper flashing (10 inches wide from the hardware store and soldered along the edges), riveted every 2 inches to the steel body with stainless steel rivets. Aluminum rivets don't work well because they form a highly insulating layer on contact with air, within seconds.

[The Lightning Stalker]

They tried that in Mythbusters season 4 episode 6. It works pretty well. They then put a brass mesh cage inside that and it worked even better.

[radikled]

cool TY I will look that one up (:

[Nyxius]

one detriment to a Faraday cage is...for a perfect cage in which the target is completely insulated it is next to impossible to get any sort of electronic signal in or out (such a signal is a vulnerability in the cage).

[christofer.sears]

Greetings gentlemen... After watching the Iranium movie, the thought of an EMP as a form of an attack on the US comes more real.... So what we do in the Military would be any combination of these Faraday cages/shipping container, all well grounded, meaning brass rods 10ft deep in moist soil, and Fiber Optics going in and out. There is also some possibility for VLC, visible light communication.

google VLC, it's sweet stuff we're starting to use here in St. Cloud Mn.
Cheers

[JTomM129]

Grounding is not going to be a cure all and in fact may make it worse, I used to make Faraday cages for biomedical nerve pick up and recording. One other issue is if you hit the system with a big enough EMP pulse there is going to be resonant frequencies that will (re)generate secondary stuff within the system. The only way to really deal with it is to somehow absorb the stuff that gets in over a huge frequency range and/or try not to have resonating issues to begin with. Not easy.

[Polymorph]

I will put in my "me, too" to what you say.

I mentioned building a small faraday cage in another reply, I've also stuffed iron wool in it as an absorber.

Of course, how you build it and how or whether or not you ground it depends on what exactly you are trying to accomplish. My faraday cage is just meant to cut way down on the signal going in and out in order to cut the range of a particular piece of equipment down so that more than one person in a building can test the 2 way comms of this equipment. So I'll actually have a sliding window in mine in order to adjust the shielding.

[TheMadScientist]

uhh, concept? necessary? oh, and yeah, the whole thing about needing a device the size of a soccer field in order to wipe the united state's electronics...

[ry25920]

Wrong again, a hydrogen bomb set off 132 miles above North America would cause all electronics in North America, Northern South America, and even eastern Russia, and the north pole.( Even though I doubt that penguins have ipods)

[UniBot]

First off... to detonate any nuclear material at such heights, you would need an ICBM or a rocket capable of traveling that far, none with the intent of performing such attack has access to such devices... and even if you stole a russian ICBM, all it takes to turn the rocket into a flying flare is shut down the military navigation satellites, PRESTO! No guidance, no target. SECOND... the YIELD you mentioned (north pole, northern south america, eastern russia, etc.) is quite alarmist, you haven't stated that in the farthest places you mentioned all they'll get is static in the radio for a few fractions of a second. the only really affected places would be the center (mid west) states (assuming you detonate on the center of the country), my guess, all electronics fried... On the far east and far west states... I'd say temporary power grid blackout, sensitive devices lost. further away... depends on geography, etc. I for one really doubt that the northern part of south america would even notice the blast (unless nighttime) (also depends on the bomb's capacity).

[The Ideanator]

Do you want to finish that thought, or was a hydrogen bomb or two the cause of all our electronics?

[DocTomoe]

Penguins live at the South Pole ;)

[ARMITRON]

ROLF nice one

[alwinovich]

and a H bomb set off in the ionosphere would cause the whole world to black out.

[Nyxius]

Most E-bombs are designed with the intent to disrupt communications.  Ionospheric detonation would only destroy electronics under it for a limited range.  Communications would be disrupted for a much larger range and for a significant amount of time.

[lego411]

Oh that sounds like so much fun!

[JTomM129]

I know this is an old thread but I’ve got to add my $0.02 . . . not all EMP dangers are from nukes. There are hackers who have made “localized EMP” devices out of disposable cameras with built in flash units that can be used to blow out the anti theft RFID devices used in some retail stores (among other uses). This hack happened to be endorsed by some very reputable (but irresponsible) folks on the net as a way to “fight the system”. I happen to have a RFID device imbedded in my head (it’s called a cochlear implant) that I’ve gone to a lot of trouble having put in and training myself to hear with it. I would defiantly be VERY annoyed if some hack blew out my internal processor trying to do a shoplifting number on a major store I just happened to be unlucky enough to be in when they set off their “mini-EMP Bomb”. I mention this here on Instructables because I love to hack myself – and I love some of the great ideas here. But some of the “that’s really cool – can I generate EMP too?” comments give me pause (let’s not even go into other medical devices like pace-makers, internal insulin pumps, etc.). There is a responsibility issue here too, and some of the entries could have potential unintended consequences.

[Nyxius]

The device your talking about is almost completely ineffective against anti-theft devices. and it only has an effective range of a few inches. most anti-theft device like the ones you referring to (EAS tags) are not RFID tags. They are EM 'flutter' devices. as they pass through a tuned field they alter the field in a way that the sensor can detect. there is no digital signal exchange. You would probably hear an emp device activation, but it would be so weak that it would never come close to harming your implant.

[148wmcquiston]

Now that we know how to protect our stuff from an EMP does anyone know how to make an EMP?

[Notbob]

Yes, that would involve a nuclear bomb. Or some other from of nuclear explosion.

[rossmcfarlane]

Surley you could use something like the national grid and scale it up though? i understand that it would stil affect a smaller range.

[Notbob]

EMP pulses can be created artificially, without a nuclear blast, however, they are very localized, and lack the power to travel any distance. To create one powerful enough to utilize the national grid, you might as well just set off a nuke in the upper atmosphere, covering the most of / the entire center of north america.

[rosscoolkid]

Cool thanks just wondering because of this experiment I was doing, with a small electrical one because I don't wont to knock out the whole of North America :)

[spylock]

Right,also sun spots can and have damaged electronics in the past,and most likley will again in te future,if our very old electric grid isnt upgraded,as solar storms rage every 11 years or so more satalites and other stuff will no doubt fail.

[harley_rly]

not exactly...you need some form of nuke to get long-range EMP waves, but to get somethin that will just mess something up in a small area all you need is a powerful electromagnet with pulses sent through it(not sure what frequency is need, or if it matters at all)

[Notbob]

I dont think there is a specific frequency needed, just a range.

To my knowledge, and emp is an emp. It will travel through metal, traveling long distances through the power grid.

[harley_rly]

hmmm, i have an idea now...build a large electromagnet and run AC power through it(60hertz here in US)and see if it will ruin a digital watch

[vestie]

"The 2nd most prominent attack on the US is EMP" Really I haven't noticed any EMP's lately and I think a more prominent attack would be loan fraud.

[rossmcfarlane]

LOL

[inventorjack]

I don't mean to sound rude, but do you realize how powerful an EMP would have to be to take out the US in whole? If such an EMP were employed, I'm confident that the RF radiation WOULD harm humans and other living things. I work on a radar system that uses relatively small amounts of RF, yet that RF is plenty enough to burn a hole through you if it's at the right distance. And where does the included map come from? It's of little use to show the height of the pulse output, but not include info on the power output. Please post some references. I hate to be a naysayer, but how can you post an instructable about something you've never tried? How can you instruct if you've never done it yourself? I recommend you build yourself a small-scale EMP device (after learning a good deal about electronics and RF) and actually conduct some tests. It would be a fun project, and it's much more likely that people will take the information seriously if you have something to back it up with. I encourage you to keep on doing instrucables, but make sure you understand what you're talking about, and above all, actually TRY what you're talking about. It's more fun, and it's more instructive (both for you and others).

[DemonTurkey]

Err.. a magnetic pulse would not effect humans at all also the US has developed EMPs (as well as the Russians), there was a part on future weapons on them, they were planning to test them in Iraq possible Afghanistan but there illegal to use as they are indiscrimination and would take out hospitals, people with pacemakers etc. as well as military installations. Theoretically all you would have to do would scale it up and you could take out a whole continent

[Nyxius]

Actually people are susceptible. We have brains and nervous systems that are sensitive to electro-magnetic fields.  but, it requires a lot less energy to destroy electronics than it takes to harm a person.  If one was detonated closer to the surface there would be no survivors for a small radius.  People in a larger radius would experience brain trauma and others would experience searing headaches.  I've dealt with large electro-magnetic fields before...they are not as harmless as you may think.