EMP attack conceivably imminent. Are you ready?

[GALTGULCH8]

A patriotic business is selling a generator so people with one will be able to survive an electromagnetic pulse attack on the USA which they claim is a goal of the jihadists.

All it would take is a detonation of a nuclear weapon tens of thousands of feet above the country to render our electric grid useless causing the country to go dark for enough months or years to lead to the deaths of nine our of ten citizens.

If there were a way to protect us and the grid our government evidently has other priorities. I haven't heard any of the candidates for president talk about it or make promises to deal with this threat.

Another way to shut down the electrical grid would be to destroy the nine or so power stations which remain vulnerable to attack as they were built in a gentler time where no one even dreamed that anyone would think of doing so.

Not paranoid enough!

In the meantime SFL and YAL continue to grow in number exponentially. Given enough time there will be millions and tens of millions of such enlightened folks.

Maybe then.

[Selene]

Every family should have a generator.

Ours made our house a community resource for a few unprepared neighbors during Sandy.

A...

[turkeyfoot]

Interesting book.

http://www.onesecondafter.com

Any internal combustion engine reliant on solid state electronics; ecm (electronic control module) becomes worthless if in range when EMP is employed. By the way, all electronics that would ordinarily run off a gen set would be toast too. I have a gen set with 2k gallons of propane, good for 48 days on high demand. I consider my manual well pump more precious in certain circumstances.

Even a pre 80's analog carbureted generator would back fire on its owner. )As soon as roving bands of malcontents appeared.

What every family would benefit from is a survival course. Last summer I went to https://mountainshepherd.com. SERE trained the owner who trained me.

What I learned is, the single most important aspect to survival is a positive mental attitude, then first aid, shelter,fire craft, signaling and lastly food and water.

That and not to listen to Bear Grylss. )

[BaalChatzaf]

I have been hearing and reading about EMP attacks for at least the past 20 years. The theory sounds grand. But the practice? No EMP attacks have been attempted. The quickest solution to the EMP threat is proper grounding and disconnect from the power grid. That will take care of electric power supply. Conceivable an EMP attack could cripple or disable a computer system, scrambling the memory and taking down the processors. Backup memory can be safely stored in an area surround by conductive metal (basically a Faraday Cage) There is a famous picture Tesla calmly reading a book while sparks carry millions of volts crash against the metalic chambe in which he is sittling. All the jucie is ground and none inside is harmed.

The closest thing we have to a man made EMP attack is the effect of CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) which sends a gazillion tons of charged particles from the sun against our terrestrial magnetic field. One of the recent outages in Quebec was an instance. There was also the famous Carrington Event of 1859 which caused quite a bit of damage. The U.S. had only just gone to electro magnetic telegraphs and there were no major electric power systems in in existence. Telegraph operators were shocked and burned by sparks jumping from the telegraphic coils. People walking near barbed wire fences were equally shocked a burned. If the U.S. had a fully integrated electrical system back then it would have been hit hard.

So far the only EMP attacks have been natural, mostly from CMEs and cosmic rays but they give a good indication of the kind of damage a man made EMP attack could do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[turkeyfoot]

Tesla calmly reading a book while sparks carry millions of volts crash against the metalic chambe in which he is sittling.

Ba'al Chatzaf

You know what they say about electricity, its the current that will kill you. Thats why I could safely discharge a crt anode of 25k volts. )

North Koreas missle range is said to be 5600 miles, close enough to hit all of the mideast, most of Europe, N Africa, Australia and Southern California arced to Minnesota.

On Jan 6th an underground test measured 5.1.

My guess is they want to live.

No attacks but there have been tests. This is how we can know the effects of EMP although conducted long ago in an era mostly devoid of electronics.

The 1962 Soviet Nuclear EMP Tests over Kazakhstan.

http://www.futurescience.com/emp/test184.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

1962, begun in response to the Soviets ending a 3 yr moratorium on testing.

Although Starfish Prime was a 1.44 megaton thermonuclear weapon, it was actually extremely inefficient at producing EMP. Much smaller nuclear fission weapons, requiring far less expertise, would be much more efficient at producing EMP, especially the very fast E1component. In general, the simpler the nuclear weapon, the more efficient it is at producing EMP. (See the the notes on EMP page.) Thermonuclear weapons (so-called hydrogen bombs) are very inefficient at generating the fast-rise-time E1 pulse. (Weapons with a high energy yield are much better at generating the slower E3 pulse that can damage transformers in the power grid, which would take years to replace. This E3 pulse can induce large currents even in long underground lines. Solar superstorms can cause the same type of damage.)

The Starfish Prime test knocked out some of the electrical and electronic components in Hawaii, which was 897 miles (1445 kilometers) away from the nuclear explosion. The E1 component of the pulse....... gamma rays hit the upper atmosphere, they knock out electrons in the atoms in the upper atmosphere..... This current interacts with the Earth's magnetic field to produce a strong electromagnetic pulse, which originates a few miles overhead, even though the nuclear detonation point may be a thousand miles away or more. The Earth's magnetic field over the center of the continental United States is about twicethe strength as at the location of the Starfish Prime test.

[Peter]

The water crisis in Flint highlights one aspect of an emp attack or a flare from the sun. I wonder if my generator would be protected? It sits on my porch on concrete with a metal roof over it.

[BaalChatzaf]

The water crisis in Flint highlights one aspect of an emp attack or a flare from the sun. I wonder if my generator would be protected? It sits on my porch on concrete with a metal roof over it.

Ground it and put a chicken wire covering all about (a Faraday cage). It will be o.k. The chances of either a man-made EMP attack or a major league CME discharge are very low.

[Peter]

I may or not have chicken wire in my shed. What I do have are conical, metal tomato trellises. I could stack them over and around the generator. Before this snow storm I started the generated and found I only had 32 hours of fuel and I like to have 40 hours in reserve. With my 5000 watts I could run two small space heaters (intermittently), the water pump, the lights, the fridge and freezer, computer and TV, and if I shut off the fridge for a few minutes I could run my Sears microwave too. NO hot water heater. No central air. No conventional oven or burners.

Peter

[Brant Gaede]

Gee, Peter. Are you now living in the aftermath of imagined disaster?

[Peter]

Brant, last night, I watched a show about the Nepalese 2015 earthquake. An aftershock two weeks later caused people to run into the streets with their hands over their heads to ward off falling debris. Preparation does not mean paranoia. I like to have a survival pack ready. Extra batteries. Water to drink and to flush. Canned or dried food we actually eat so it will not go bad. A generator. Talking about it excessively could be a sign of an unbalanced mental state . . . at least until the unimaginable happens. Another Sandy. An earthquake. An emp. A mushroom cloud over DC just on my horizon. None of those things are impossible. I don't have a Mormon closet which would last a year but I have about a month's worth of supplies and the means to defend them.

Peter

[Brant Gaede]

Buy Nuclear War Survival Skills if you don't own it.

If you are completely by yourself you cannot survive zombies and thugs. I suggest five strong, well trained sons--even daughters can shoot blunderbusses.

--Brant

three sons will do, but spares help

movies apropos: The Patriot, Shenandoah, Rio Bravo

not: High Noon

[Peter]

You don't mess with seven brides for seven brothers.

I have a copy. A Soviet Mig just came within 15 feet of a U.S. jet in The Black Sea.

I saw a joke by Neal Degrassi Tyson, bison or whatever his name is.

A Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic Church. The priest blocks his way. We don't allow you guys in here he says. The Higgs Boson replies, But without me you can't have mass.

Peter

[Brant Gaede]

No comment.

--Brant

no mass!