EMP Proofing your gear while in the car or in your go-bag. (Useful Tin boxes)

[freax]

*Censored*

[RichardSinFWTX]

Yeah, those ought to work.  You'll need to insulate the inside with something like cupboard shelf liner or (what I use) FlexSeal rubber in a can.

[ciphercomms]

While wandering through 'home center' today I noticed foil-faced cardboard used to line stud or joist spaces for HVAC return air spaces...nice stiff easy to work with...foil on both sides with some sort of filament mesh embedded. And right across the aisle was the wide stainless steel duct tape. The only science of Faraday containers I know is that gaps must be smaller than wavelength you're trying to protect against...pretty small with X-rays I suppose...but I would value opinions on how well that foil-laminated cardboard would serve if carefully crafted into boxes with an additional thin inner layer of foam or shelf-liner. Probably shirt box style lid that overlapped a lot all the way around.

[ciphercomms]

Thanks Freax...that was pretty comprehensive. I lug a LOT of stuff around in my vehicle, packed in sort of modular cardboard boxes with coat of enamel paint to make them at least moisture-resistant. Some of them are probably 20 years old and are in the back of third vehicle...a little tattered but still structurally sound. And much of their assorted content is packed into sub-modular cardboard boxes, plastic boxes, or stuff-bags...I'm a little obsessive-compulsive about organization.

I keep a mobile radio and a handheld in the vehicle. Mobile is sort of quick-disconnect wired and it actually spends most of its time in a box in the back...out of sight. Handheld is usually in glove box. Also have an electronics kit box with SWR, VOM, small solar panel, and cute little hand-crank dynamo in addition to 12V soldering iron and bits/pieces of connectors and tools. All should be EMP protected but aren't. I've been keeping my eyes open for metal boxes that would be a close fit for them but just haven't found right sizes yet...and the ones referenced in post above mostly aren't big enough, although one would fit the handheld nicely.

In any case, I would put conductive tape on all edges, overlapping at corners, and go ahead and secure lid with conductive tape.

I'm a little leery about crafting a foiled cardboard box for mobile and putting it in microwave. Well, actually I would never put the radio in there...would put an old cassette player or something expendable in there for testing purposes.

I appreciate your thoughtful analysis of my hare-brained scheme...but I'm not too concerned about moisture resistance or structural integrity...and I think I'm going to give it a shot anyhow. I will probably try a small test in microwave before I freak out and make a bunch of boxes that might turn out to be unsuitable.

One more question, if anyone is game: what's in the base of a Wilson magnetic-mount antenna ? Should THAT be stored in Faraday box ? 

[ciphercomms]

It's probably just a dumb loading coil but I'm no electronics whiz and don't know if there's likely to be a resistor or capacitor wired in somehow...and it's not obvious how I would get inside to look it without chopping at it. Figured somebody here might know.

Antennas will be least of our problems after a major EMP event. It's just so cotton pickin' inconvenient to disconnect and pack away everything in anticipation of something that hasn't happened since Carrington Event in 1859. But it could happen...with little or no advance warning...and it would be WAY more impactful now than it was then.

A number of years ago I supervised the installation of an entire Faraday room in a university EE lab...from the building interface angle...and it's not rocket science. I don't want a brass screen wire cage in the corner of my den but I would consider moving shack to corner of the basement and enclosing a desk-size console in a cage. Then just pulling power plug and antenna leads would be required...and remembering to shut the doors.

[ciphercomms]

And that's the 'good' kind of EMP that just confuses power grid controls without frying everything else.

We live in an older neighborhood with lots of big trees with big branches that fall onto the wires all the time...so I have a generator big enough to run the furnace and 'fridge. I don't run right out and start it up when the power goes off...to advertise that I have power while others don't (so many stories about folks running gen-sets in back yard, even chained to a tree, and suddenly the lights go off again and you catch a glimpse of your gen-set disappearing down the alley in the back of somebody else's pickup). But I end up running it at least a couple of times a year. That's ANOTHER pending project...to build a basement compartment with sound and vibration control, combustion air intake up in attic, and exhaust through existing brick chimney.

To avoid running it every time power goes out I've also got a kerosene wick heater that actually keeps our whole house above freezing when it's 0 F outside...and keeps basement (with water pipes) toasty. It's still sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor from overnight blackout 10 days ago when we lost power during blizzard with temps in single digits F. It hasn't been worth wrestling it back out to garage...and it's about 50:50 I'll need it again soon.

[ciphercomms]

I was stationed various places in Asia, both S.E. and N.E. and relied entirely on kerosene for heat in off-base house through two N.E. Asia winters. It's only mildly inconvenient and only smells when lighting or extinguishing. And I believe kero' is the most energy-dense form of fuel pound-for-pound...plus it doesn't blow up unless you figure out some way to vaporize it first. 'Butterfly' wick cook stove is handy, to, for high summer canning out in garage when you don't want to steam up the house but have to do something with all the tomatoes. There...I've done it again...dragged the thread completely away from EMP...

To redeem myself slightly I'll mention that I have been busy measuring components and sketching a compact insert for entire HF rig to fit in a metal cabinet. Thinking 'compact' and 'insert' with idea that it could become man-pack portable base station as well.