New Russian EMP

Started by Cliff, March 14, 2015, 09:10:25 AM

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Cliff

Has anyone more information about the "New Russian EMP"?

One statement is that it is 1000 x former EMP.  From what I've read about EMP, that doesn't mean "stronger" - because, as I understand, the Compton Effect (gamma ray interaction with air molecules and atoms) is fairly regular, no matter the size of the blast.

could it mean "higher" in the atmosphere? (HEMP), with their larger rockets - the coverage area does expand with altitude.

What I am concerned about, is the protection of my radio gear. 
Yes, there is the "trash can" faraday cage.  Will this put such into threat? 
I have worked on the possibility of tube gear being able to better withstand EMP (I did find out that the PS diode rectifiers were a disaster threat - uh-oh).  So I am having centering primarily on my old Heath gear, with rectifier tubes, and getting a set of dynamotors (6v deep discharge batteries) as an alternative. 
But I do have some nice solid state equipment that I would rather use, directly off the batteries, for an emergency.

Is this going to be somewhat futile, with the "new Russian HEMP"?

cockpitbob

Don't worry about your trash can Faraday cage.  So long as the lid makes frequent contact around the circumference (no long slot antennas) it will protect what's inside from pretty much anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyko81WAvvQ

I don't know anything about Russia's "new" EMP capabilities, but I know they've been working on non-nuclear EMP devices for decades.  That linked article makes a good, and disturbing point.  I'm no very worried about my electronics getting fried.  Mass starvation and the roving gangs of "hunter gatherers" looking for what food I might have would be my biggest concern.

From the article talking about an EMP without the destruction of a nuclear blast...
QuoteNevertheless, an EMP attack could shut down the entire U.S. power grid, Wall Street, the banking system, airports, and hospitals. People living on pacemakers and other hospital equipment would die. The lack of refrigeration and running trucks would spoil U.S. food reserves and supermarket goods, resulting in mass starvation. According to Dr. Lowell Wood, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and who worked on the Strategic Defense Imitative (SDI) in the Reagan administration, an EMP attack could "literally destroy the American nation and might cause the deaths of 90% of its people and set us back a century or more in time as far as our ability to function as a nation."


ps:  Cliff, welcome to the board! :D

ABaze

I'd ask Arthur Bradley. He wrote a good (IMO, especially for non-electrical-engineers like me) book: EMP Attacks and Solar Storms, and has a "connect with me" link on the lower right side of his website, where you can shoot him a message.

(I'd give you the link, but I'm new, not clear on what constitutes "unwelcome advertising" on the forum, so I'll leave it at that for now.)

-Andrew

ciphercomms

I can't readily find anything about a 'new Russian EMP' weapon with my Google machine...although there are plenty of older articles on various EMP weapons.

Our current U.S. research seems to be concentrating on relatively compact focused EMP beam systems that can be carried in aircraft or armored vehicles...and maybe Russians have come up with something new and 'wonderful' along those lines.

I gather there's no trick to making a focused EMP beam...the problem is the portable power supply. It's the same problem radio people have when we want to take equipment out in the field...except on a vastly different scale.

Dr. Megavolt is a stitch, but that's an entirely different kind of electromagnetic energy he's playing with.

mousewizard

The EMP Commission had to be encouraged to test Automobiles, and relatively few problems were found and this was with older digital systems that weren't very tolerant of voltage swings and the like. Modern cars should do fine since they're now designed to function in the high RFI environment created by the multiple computers and networks running in a modern auto.

The EMP Commission didn't bother to test small radios, handhelds, etc. The physics just aren't there.

Basically, you need an antenna. If you're hooked to the grid you're connected to a giant antenna. So that's bad.

If you have a radio hooked up to a dipole you may have problems, you may not. The problem will be the power line.

So your HF field gear that's sitting in storage will be fine. Same for VHF and UHF mobiles. Grid-connected repeaters will suffer.

Personally, I switch my antennas to ground when I'm not using them, and I use a solar system to power the radio. Solves the EMP problem.

Cliff

The government is now moving its Warfare facilities to the underground Cold War location in Colorado - said - because of possibility of EMP

Quietguy

They are moving back in, apparently they moved out in 2006 to save money.  At that time Russia wasn't playing the chess game they are today.  Moving back in may be one way we are telling Russia we are paying attention to what they are doing.

Also, military communications have some requirements we don't have - they need to be able to operate before, during and after an attack without interruption.  They have different priorities than we do.

Wally

recon_prepper

How can someone say a trashcan will protect from something then in the very next sentence say they don't know anything about what it is the trashcan is protecting from??????
I remember in the 80s on a military base I saw a demonstration of an emp weapon being demonstrated on top of a humvee. A trashcan was used and a radio that was playing music was put into the can. The radio then stopped playing as the can shielded the radio waves from getting in. The emp weapon was aimed and turned on. There was no bright light or laser beam and it appeared nothing had happened.
They opened the trashcan and pulled out the radio and it was dead.
This was an emp weapon from the 80s from our military. Think how far the tech has come since then.
That said the trashcan thing only works depending on where the blast, how powerful the blast is....... If the blast is low power and far away then the trashcan faraday cage may very well work just fine. But it the blast is close range and powerful then the trashcan may not be enough to stop it. Just like in the demonstration I saw.
The right answer to the question is "it depends"



Quote from: cockpitbob on March 14, 2015, 10:44:16 AM
Don't worry about your trash can Faraday cage.  So long as the lid makes frequent contact around the circumference (no long slot antennas) it will protect what's inside from pretty much anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyko81WAvvQ

I don't know anything about Russia's "new" EMP capabilities, but I know they've been working on non-nuclear EMP devices for decades.  That linked article makes a good, and disturbing point.  I'm no very worried about my electronics getting fried.  Mass starvation and the roving gangs of "hunter gatherers" looking for what food I might have would be my biggest concern.

From the article talking about an EMP without the destruction of a nuclear blast...
QuoteNevertheless, an EMP attack could shut down the entire U.S. power grid, Wall Street, the banking system, airports, and hospitals. People living on pacemakers and other hospital equipment would die. The lack of refrigeration and running trucks would spoil U.S. food reserves and supermarket goods, resulting in mass starvation. According to Dr. Lowell Wood, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and who worked on the Strategic Defense Imitative (SDI) in the Reagan administration, an EMP attack could "literally destroy the American nation and might cause the deaths of 90% of its people and set us back a century or more in time as far as our ability to function as a nation."


ps:  Cliff, welcome to the board! :D

Quietguy

Quote from: recon_prepper on September 23, 2015, 12:55:45 PM
How can someone say a trashcan will protect from something then in the very next sentence say they don't know anything about what it is the trashcan is protecting from??????

Because there is a presumption that preppers as a group are not protecting against specialized Directed Energy weapons (such as the demo you saw) that would be targeting military/infrastructure assets.  The presumed threat to the prepper community is a generalized high altitude nuclear EMP (HEMP), which is what CockpitBob was addressing.  Just like the garden-variety prepper has little defense against NSA eavesdropping, the garden-variety prepper has little to no defense against military weapons or tactics of any kind, kinetic or electronic.

The problem with discussing EMP is the survival literature (mostly sensationalist fiction) has mingled the affects of HEMP, ionizing radiation and directed energy weapons to the point where there is way too much confusion about the real affects of each - and they are all different.  Unless a prepper lives next door to a high value military or critical infrastructure asset, there is little need to lose sleep over ionizing radiation or DE weapons.  Ionizing radiation strong enough to disable your electronics is also strong enough to disable you.  DE weapons are for important targets, not somebody's clandestine short wave receiver.  That leaves HEMP, which is what Bob was addressing, and there is plenty of credible information out there.

Preppers are not military units.  If anyone is concerned their activities may be interesting enough to attract the level of attention from a Well Funded Adversary that would result in a DE strike, maybe they should re-think their OpSec.

Wally

km4mcm

I saw a news article the other day talking about the Iranian navy performing operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. There was talk, given the radiological abilities of Iran, a possible scenario for emp would be a covert launch by Iran from a container ship in the gulf of Mexico for such a high altitude event.

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