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[ Any electronics that will survive an EMP blast? ]

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Old 01-24-2006, 08:28 PM   #1 of 34
Nathan Eddy
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Any electronics that will survive an EMP blast?


I was just curious, given that Iran wants to build and use one against us. Are there any communication devices (CBs, walkie-talkies, etc.) that would work in the event of an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon attack?
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Old 01-24-2006, 08:30 PM   #2 of 34
MarkHastings
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I'm subscribing to watch the fun




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Old 01-24-2006, 08:40 PM   #3 of 34
Nathan Eddy
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Fun? I'm not sure I get what you're saying.
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Old 01-24-2006, 08:53 PM   #4 of 34
Kirk Gunn
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I don't know many specifics, but I assume the DoD has investigated this matter thoroughly and has developed capable products.

Hopefully they will allow me to post to HTF when the sh-t hits the fan !
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Old 01-24-2006, 08:56 PM   #5 of 34
DaveF
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Properly shielded electronics should survive. And old-skool analog phone (push-button, no features) could be useful, assuming the POTS infra-structure lives.
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Old 01-24-2006, 09:02 PM   #6 of 34
Jeff_CusBlues
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I work at a large military contractor and just about every radio we build is designed and tested to survive and EMP pulse.
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Old 01-24-2006, 09:29 PM   #7 of 34
Ray Chuang
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I think people should remember that for EMP to work really effectively you need to detonate a megaton-yield nuclear device about 200-400 miles above the ground in space. That was what happened during the Starfish Prime test in 1962 using a 1.4 MT nuclear warhead.

It appears that the so-called EMP bombs that spread filaments of carbon fiber are not as effective as they first guessed, and a low-yield 20 kT nuclear warhead detonated in near space won't have much EMP effects, either.



Raymond in Sacramento, CA USA
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Old 01-24-2006, 10:59 PM   #8 of 34
ChristopherDAC
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Internal Iranian politics are strange enough, and the record of those countries which have actually built atomic weapons is placid enough [the Bomb seems to have a remarkable moderating effect on even the most unstable regimes], that one can hardly speculate what developments over there will lead to.

That said, and remarking that Ray Chuang is quite right about the magnitude of the weapon and the arrnagement of the circumstances which turned out all the lights in Honolulu [but lit up the sky brighter than any streetlamp], quite a few things would survive. All kinds of older electronics would be mostly OK: the lights went out in Honololu because the voltage surge induced in the power lines tripped the circuit breakers, and it took hours to get the power plants restarted. The problem is semiconductor junctions, because the induced voltage on a micro-scale can push them past breakdown voltage, and then they're no good anymore; there is also the possibility that capacitors could be blown up, but that's a secondary issue. Fortunately, it is possible to build parallel junctions which will take up the shock. Most civilian equipment isn't built this way, but mil-spec semiconductors usually are.

In fine, then, your vacuum-tube radio will work; anything which has only germanium diodes and transistors will probably be fine; and "hardened" electronics, and probably most things inside Faraday cages [conductive shields; many PCs have at least partial ones, to avoid interference problems] should be OK. Your iPod will be toast, and you'll have to reset all your circuit breakers.

I could write all night about the effects of atomic weapons, but I don't think anyone wants to read that.


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Old 01-25-2006, 08:11 AM   #9 of 34
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It would be amusing to have this backfire on Iran such that all their electronic equipment went on the fritz.
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Old 01-25-2006, 08:44 AM   #10 of 34
Holadem
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Oh oh oh, a good place to plug in one of my favorite HTF threads eva eva.

--
H



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