# Prepping / Emergency Preparedness > General Emergency Preparedness >  Emp

## timjones922

Has anyone given serious thought to protecting HAM, or CB radios against EMP?

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## natertot

I don't know about protecting ham, but I always protect the bacon. Bacon is a very special and valuable item in my book!

In all seriousness, I do not use HAM/CB radios and I do not prepare for EMP's. I prepare for losses of utilities, natural/manmade disasters, and civil unrest because that is historically most likely to actually occur. This may very well be an interesting thread, I look forward to see how it develops.

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## kyratshooter

Another popcorn and soda thread!

It's been a while since we saved the world from EMP.

I hope spring breaks soon.

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## hunter63

Well, I keep my Talk-a-bouts in metal ammo can......but they are pretty short range.
Got a hand held CD in the truck....but don't keep it full of batteries.

But I really think that should a EMP hit in my location, a Ham or CB may be the least of my worries.

The again on the other hand, if you have a operational radio....who's to say if anyone else around?....and if they do, maybe they are some one you don't want to know where you are?

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## crashdive123

I don't have either, but I do have some decent handhelds that I store in an ammo can like H63 - not out of concern for an EMP, but rather to keep them protected.

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## Rick

We've had a LOT of threads on EMP. You'd probably have to search for Electo or magnetic or pulse since EMP is too short to search on. I have hand held ham and CB but I'm not too worried about EMP. If the radios get it we'll have a lot worse problems than me not being able to talk.

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## Wildthang

Line your entire attic with tinfoil??? :Smartass:

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## Eastree

Back when I used to repair and install air traffic control radios, I was very familiar with lightning arresters. They're basically fuses -- very specialized fuses. They allow full use of the antenna cable (there are arresters made for different types of cables, not just coax) to function properly until struck by lightning or in the case of an EMP. 

There were different types. Inexpensive ones would blow like a fuse, and you'd either have to replace the arrester, or the arrester and cable out to the antenna, depending on what is burned out. There were some others which would act a bit like a fuse, but shunt the pulse to ground. They would more likely than not keep all cables and the antenna intact. Then there were the two behaviors, but more like circuit breakers: The lighning arrester could potentially be turned back to operational mode. They'd shut the pulse to ground, and they could be reset.

Of course, each one had to be very carefully grounded individually, and it wouldn't help much if the facilities weren't properly shielded as well, in the case of an EMP.

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## DSJohnson

Can anyone here create a "fairly reasonably/likely" real world scenario for an EMP event? I am genuinely interested in what that would look like.

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## hunter63

> Can anyone here create a "fairly reasonably/likely" real world scenario for an EMP event? I am genuinely interested in what that would look like.


That would be interesting....but most any world event may be a lot more devastating if an EMP event is on a global scale rather than a small local event.

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## timjones922

DS, I have given some thought to this. Say an enemy, name one there are many for the US, Russia, North Korea, Iran etc.. has the capability of long range missile. They set it off like it is a satellite. They go through all of the proper channels as it heads out to 100 miles or so up, and makes a turn explodes 200 miles above the US creating an Electro Magnetic Pulse. This would shut down communications, the power grid, and everyones little cell phone, not to mention traffic lights, and any vehicle that was made after say 1995. At first I would imagine mass chaos with looting, and pillaging taking place. Super markets out of food, Just a general bummer. At that point an invasion force comes in The end of the world as we know it.

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## Rick

And in the midst of the rumble a lone figure rises amid the smoke. A shadow, a silhouette against the ravaged landscape. The only hope of a conquered people. It's Banconator. 

"I'll see your EMP and raise you a can of whoopass."

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## timjones922

:Surrender:

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## DSJohnson

Tim,
Granted, that is a plausible theory, just speaking for myself and no one else here.

In your scenario having electronic communication capability is way, WAY down on my "To Do" list.  In your scenario, Rule of Law is lost and that in and of itself will be the game changer for me.

Personally I seem to do better tweaking my camping gear and working with my mules than addressing that level of "What If"  Probably not a bad exercise every once in a while to think about this kind of stuff but it is, at least in my world, kind of like saying, "What happens if I have a blow out on my left front tire while I am going 80 miles an hour on the interstate?"  The truth is "It is going to be bad" after that we have no idea because we can't even guess if we will survive the next twenty seconds after the tire blows.

So I keep my gear in good shape, practice using it as much as I can (go camping/hunting/rondevooing/hiking/road tripping/wagon driving/riding my mules, teaching my kids, grandkids and great grandkids how to shoot, hunt, cook, camp, fish and have fun) and enjoying this moment in my life with the folks here with me.

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## timjones922

DS,
No argument there. I am merely looking for a way to keep in touch with the folks close to me. Kids, grandkids, and mother in law. If, and or when, they will likely be pretty freaked out even though I have taught them how to hunt, fish set traps, and stay low, move quiet. I am actually heading out on about a 70 mile hiking trip that should get my gear a fair workout next week.
I know that we can not plan for every event that could occur. In California we have Earthquakes, Firestorms, no hurricaines, but we have had a few rain, and wind storms that will get your attention too. 
Former military, I don't get spun up real easy, but the rest of my family did not get that kind of training.

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## hunter63

If that is your goal....I would insure they had matching units and teach them how to use them....and have spare batteries.
Looking around found this.....deal with Ham radios.
Hope that helps.


http://modernsurvivalblog.com/emp-el...adio-from-emp/

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## BENESSE

> Can anyone here create a "fairly reasonably/likely" real world scenario for an EMP event? I am genuinely interested in what that would look like.


This is THE BEST book I've read on the topic. Totally plausible. Just read the reviews to get an idea:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-Aft...e+second+after

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## kyratshooter

EMP is the new version of mutually assured destruction which we lived with through the Cold War.

And like the nuclear threat, one bomb is not going to do the job.  The pulse loses its power at a rate squared to the distance, just like all pulses in the electromagnetic spectrum, so like the nuke option there would have to be a blanket of bombs bursting in the sky and not just one "big one" over Dorthey's house in Kansas.

Just do what NASA does to all those unshielded and over exposed satellites during CME events.  Turn them off, then back on.

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## natertot

Yeah, and the US missile defense system is pretty good. The probability for a successful attack via several hundred missiles is rather slim.

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## Rick

Besides, they haven't got that whole missile launch thing figured out yet. If they get eight or ten more kids together then I'll worry. 

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## kyratshooter

Can you imagine 300,000,000 Americans, all of Europe and most of Asia walking around holding their phones up in the air screaming "I don't have any bars!"

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## hunter63

Them is the Zombies.......LOL

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## Wildthang

Solar flares on the sun can theoretically produce enormous EMP's that could potentially shut down all electronics on earth. If that happens, only a faraday cage will protect sensitive electronics and electrical devices.
I would watch the cell phone addicts and laugh my patootie off!!!

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## timjones922

Thanks Hunter63. I have some short range for the immediate family, and a simple Faraday. Cardboard box, lined with tin foil. Familiar with cold war antics as well as that is when I served. That is a good no-nonsense link for those similar minded.

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## timjones922

Agreed. The cell phone junkies will be entertaining.

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## tjwilhelm

On this topic, has anyone yet read Ted Koppel's book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath?  I'd be interested in your impressions of it.

Thanks!

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## kyratshooter

I have decided the entire nation's vital systems should all be operated through an encrypted Apple phone.

If the FBI/NSA can not hack one how could an enemy?

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## BENESSE

> I have decided the entire nation's vital systems should all be operated through an encrypted Apple phone.
> 
> *If the FBI/NSA can not hack one how could an enemy?*


The way it works is,* we* can't hack it but the enemy can. They don't know from PC.

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