EMP attacks might be a non-issue and discussing them might be pure speculation. Until one takes place. At which point, unlike the worsening economic situation, it will suddenly be way too late to do anything about it, including having a discussion here.

Keep in mind that although we’re all undoubtedly retroactive geniuses, if you had talked about a genuine economic catastrophe (as opposed to a possibly severe setback) the likes of which we’re discussing until quite recently, most people would have considered you to be engaging in stupid doomsday speculation. Heck, most still would consider this fantasy.

Or in short: the fact that we’re screwing ourselves doesn’t mean that we needn’t concern ourselves with our enemies screwing us too.

I take your point about trying to keep on topic, but you might want to consider dialing down the hostility and condescension.

1) Purchase several rolls of heavy Duty Aluminum Foil,
2) fashion a beanie for your cranium of at least three layers.
3) Create aluminum shields for the portions of all electronic appliances; place them with tape or rubber bands on the faces NEAREST to the SKY.
4) glue or tape triple-thick layers of foil to the bonnet of your autocar, taking care to protect the micro-chip components. Don’t be stingy with the foil.
5) If you are aesthetically-minded, you might consider applying an attractive coat of spray paint to match or coordinate to the existing paint pattern.

6) Do not head for the hills; that places you in a position that is both nearer to any EMP detonation AND above a large fraction of the protective atmosphere. You will be in additional danger from stochastic effects of ionizing radiation from daughter particles of cosmic ray/atmospheric molecule collisions. Doing so will additionally expose your retinas to six percent greater amounts of ultraviolet radiation for each 1000 feet you rise above your customary altitude of repose. Makes you go blind sooner, and also promotes melanoma and degradation of subcutaneous connective tissue, leading to premature wrinklediness.

Seriously, our satellite communications systems – upon which we depend for intercontinental phone, radio, TV, AND those little chips that tell the government where you is at every moment of the live-long day – are darned sensitive even to VISIBLE LIGHT, much less the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Maybe there are hidden blessings.

The scenarios of golbal economic collapse and global currency schemes are predicted in the Bible. That book suggests the only way to survive is to believe Jesus is your savior, make prayer a key part of your survival planning, and pass on the word. Jesus is comming back to take his friends to heaven. I know that sounds crazy compared to the reality of the comming collapse, but is really the only hope we have. Your guns will run out of bullets, your food storage will run out, and the mobs will overcome all efforts of resistance. Get out of the cities, find some land somewhere with running water, a well, and good soil for a garden. This should help lessen the burdens of the “time of trouble” before it is too late. Unfortunately I think that time has already passed for many.

My church has since the late 1800s consistently tought that time is short. Looking back at the history of the progressive march detailed in many posts here at BC it looks like they were right all along. Communisim has proven to be a satanic belief system, leading to death and distruction of millions (now the entire world). This is reality.

Rise time of waveform is 3-5ns
100ns FWHM (full width half max)
Wave form is a critically damped sine wave.

Plug that into the calcs.

This effect makes it possible for certain types of radar transmitters to act as short range EMP weapons.

This would be the AESA radars on the F-22, especially, that can sneak in and lay a precise beam of disorganization on enemy weapons, like Cruise missiles and so forth.

EW has been going since radar was first deployed, and it has always worked on radar receivers. The new EW weapons make a much wider range of things “receivers.”

I remember meeting an old Israeli on an airline flight one time, and we got to talking about the Arab-Israeli War, and he told me the Israelis had a “switch that turned off the other airplanes.”

Nothing new under the sun, only now the F-22 is an “outmoded” “Cold War relic” I understand.

At this juncture I submit anyone who is NOT a survivalist is a whack job.

Ferfal’s site is excellent.-Bear in mind it is written from the viewpoint of a city dweller.
Community is strength.

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?p=106493

Chernoble was not a nuclear bomb, it was a reactor melt-down. It is possible that a voltage transient over the power lines knocked out radios that were plugged in without surge protection.

In some circumstances the leads into electronic devices can accumulate enough potential difference to cause an electrical discharge across small components, but the free space electric field would have to be very large and that means that the power flux density must also be high. This effect makes it possible for certain types of radar transmitters to act as short range EMP weapons.

Let’s consider a scenario which is much worse than real. Suppose we have a 100 kT bomb exploding 100 km away. We assume that all the energy is converted to an EMP which lasts 1 millisecond. The energy of a 100 kT bomb is 4.2x10E14 joules. At 100 km range, the total energy flux (assuming no intermediate absorption) is 3.34x10E3 joules/m2, or 0.334 joules/cm2. Assuming a 1 millisecond pulse, the power density at 100 km is 334 watts/cm2. The instantaneous electric field is sqrt(334×377) = 355 volts/cm.

In the ideal case, this would do some damage to poorly designed free standing electronics. In practice the situation is not nearly so bad. One major reason is that relatively little of the blast energy is translated into EMP. The second is that any energy which creates a plasma (e.g. by ionizing the atmosphere) also creates a shield against prompt EMP (except for the moving plasma acting to squeeze the Earth’s magnetic field lines, which I mentioned above).

As you alluded to, the main effect is to couple energy into the power lines, which will create a voltage surge which can knock out unprotected devices which are plugged in.

I offer no opinion on whether the American future holds an economic and societal collapse. The economic gurus over at Forbes, RealClearPolitics (Economy), MSN, Money, etc, are all over the place with predictions, and I don’t have the technical background to weed the wheat from the chaff. I have, however, taken a few precautions based on what this ferfal suggests and that bit of preparation at least eases my mind.

Good luck.