Although computer hard drives would not be erased, the electronics in hard drives that are not specifically protected against EMP would be destroyed, making it very expensive to recover the data that was still magnetically stored on the hard drive. Also, some of the data would be corrupted on any computer hard drives that were spinning at the time of the EMP attack.

I got this from this page: http://www.futurescience.com/emp.html

So I suspect that CD's and DVD's would retain their data unharmed, but not so for Hard Drives.

Another good page: Getting Prepared for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack
http://www.futurescience.com/emp/emp-protection.html

 

I wood highly suggest you get a netbook or similar tiny laptop and charging gear and put it in a shielded box. The box can be as simple as a cardboard box wrapped in foil with a wire from the foil to a ground. The gear inside CANT touch the foil so the cardboard box insulates it. The foil needs to cover the box so not to have large gaps in coverage. Keep your data on a few burned disks as well as flash drives inside the box as well. Throw in some 2-way radios and emergency radios along with any other delicate electronics to keep it all safe.

If you have a generator, cover it first with a plastic tarp (to insulate) and then with a stitched bag of metal screendoor material. Run a wire from the screen to to a ground.

The main prep for a major EMP attack is lots of water, food, and weapons to protect it. 1 to 2 years of food along with water storage and rain collection/filtering gear.

 

a cardboard box wrapped in foil with a wire from the foil to a ground.

You mean like an electrical wire?

Also thanks for the info :thumb:

 

Yeah, a disconnected drive would be probably safe. Flash drives and optical disks would be completely safe too.

How on earth would you plan on using these files after an attack? That means you have to have a PC of some sort squirreled away and a power supply to run it. Hard copy would require a printer and paper. It's a lot more complicated than just tucking away a flash drive in the BOB.

It would also mean that civilization hadn't deteriorated to where those files no longer mattered. That is true for a localized catastrophe like hurricane or earthquake and one should back up critical information for that reason. (I prefer an external hard drive run through a USB port using Acronis "True Image" software.) I don't see it mattering after an EMP attack unless the attacker did a really poor job of it.

The format that would probably work best is paper.

 

Yeah, a disconnected drive would be probably safe. Flash drives and optical disks would be completely safe too.

How on earth would you plan on using these files after an attack? That means you have to have a PC of some sort squirreled away and a power supply to run it. Hard copy would require a printer and paper. It's a lot more complicated than just tucking away a flash drive in the BOB.

It would also mean that civilization hadn't deteriorated to where those files no longer mattered. That is true for a localized catastrophe like hurricane or earthquake and one should back up critical information for that reason. (I prefer an external hard drive run through a USB port using Acronis "True Image" software.) I don't see it mattering after an EMP attack unless the attacker did a really poor job of it.

The format that would probably work best is paper.

Yeah, a disconnected drive would be probably safe. Flash drives and optical disks would be completely safe too.

How on earth would you plan on using these files after an attack? That means you have to have a PC of some sort squirreled away and a power supply to run it. Hard copy would require a printer and paper. It's a lot more complicated than just tucking away a flash drive in the BOB.

It would also mean that civilization hadn't deteriorated to where those files no longer mattered. That is true for a localized catastrophe like hurricane or earthquake and one should back up critical information for that reason. (I prefer an external hard drive run through a USB port using Acronis "True Image" software.) I don't see it mattering after an EMP attack unless the attacker did a really poor job of it.

The format that would probably work best is paper.

I have a 10 year old laptop that I'm protecting. Not for the copies of birth certificates etc, but for all of the survival files. One laptop can hold thousands of books worth of information. I add new info to thumb drives and then protect them, too. I hope I never need it, but someday these files could save the lives of myself, my families and friends.

 

I don't know why people think a Faraday cage has to be grounded. It does not, unless you are using it for lightning protection, an entirely different critter from EMP.

Shoplifters have been known to make a purse into a Faraday cage with aluminum foil so as to prevent the RFID chips in merchandise from setting off the store alarms as they leave.

 

An EMP attack form North Korea is no threat whatsoever.
Whoops, sorry, got this in the wrong thread. Was responding to the North Koreans Build EMP Bomb thread.

 

but, strangely, your post is entirely relevant in this thread.:thumb:

 

grounding IS important unless your Faraday cage is a perfect sphere with out ANY creases or imperfections in the material. The EMP is such a massive frequency spectrum along with ample power it will RETRANSMIT inside an imperfect Faraday cage (any imperfection is a potential antenna that will transmit/receive). An EMP is allot like lighting except the frequency range MUCH greater (several orders of magnitude). The pulse shape is identical (except the amplitude/frequency space), in other words the current developed from the coupling of the EMP pulse is going to be massive and NEEDS to be sent to ground to dissipate.

The simplest method to protect electronics is to be under ground (bury your Faraday cage cache 10-18 feet under). The EMP does penetrate the earth but just the low frequency portion will travel far. The use of a Faraday cage in this aspect (even an imperfect one) will do the job.

This subject has been under-estimated by the military for some time since 1960's, just recently (1990's-present) d they re-evaluate the potential damage one could do.

This is my thesis research topic for my grad degree in nuclear engineering (20% reactor stuff, 80% weapon stuff), Army is actually paying to go to school for this stuff Its an excellent topic, I posted a grad level EMP Class Notes in the download section, its a little heavy on the math but the concepts are broken down to basic physics so the principles make sense.

 

Thanks for the upload isopsycho, I uploaded a U.S. Army Engineering Pamphlet concerning this subject to the Survival Files section as well under the title: EMP & Tempest Protection for Facilities - EP 1110-3-2.

I am also looking for another reference concerning EMP and would appreciate it if anyone could point me toward or post a digital copy of the FEMA, Electronic Pulse Protection Guidance, CPG 2-17, Volumes I, II, & III.

 

I can get the unclassified EMP protection MILSPEC standards used in the DOD testing and harding, not sure if FEMA uses something similar or just generalities.
I'll check my DOD contacts.

 

I stash my electronics in a couple of metal cash boxes.
ASUS eee PC
2 FRS/GMRS radios
NIMH battery charger
DVD burner
Flash drives & micro SD cards
3.5" hard drives
Cable & power supply to read 3.5" drives with a laptop USB
Digital watch
Several LCD flashlights
AM/FM portable radio
Folding solar panel

Everything is insulated from the metal with cardboard or the laptop case.
To test each box, I put my cell phone inside the box and called it. The cheap box took some foil around the edge of the lid to keep the signal out.

 

To test each box, I put my cell phone inside the box and called it. The cheap box took some foil around the edge of the lid to keep the signal out.

Now keep in mind that's only a small frequency your testing at, an EMP will have much higher ranges at incredible power levels. Due to the higher and more powerful frequencies the corner of the box will act as an antenna and retransmit inside the box. The best way to protect is a double layer system, if you store your box in a metal shed then your survival chances go way up. If you keep your box in a root cellar under ground then your chances go to almost 99.8% (just the lower frequencies will penetrate the earth leaving the box to shield from those).

But, just your simple precautions are more than the average person does. I keep an entire system in cold storage under cover in a box, My server back-ups get updated every month.

 

Since this is my first non-newbie thread post and I've been here for awhile, I feel silly so bear with me.

As it sits, I have one entire computer, several hard drives and other EMP-sensitive electronics stored in a 5x10 foot box I made that's basically copper electrical wire woven into a hexagonal mesh (like chicken wire!) that has two layers of shielding. The entire setup is buried in the woods, five feet underground and I'd like to put a sheet of metal (probably copper) over the top of it for added protection. (the metal acts as an enormous steel water tower to the box's silly little general store with a tin roof) If you cut it in half, it would look like a double-thick icecream sandwich. One layer of mesh, insulation, another mesh layer and then insulation. Now I have no means of testing it, but I made the entire thing stripping an old burned out house of it's wiring and simple foam I tore apart from the furniture. The foam conducts electricity about as well as a block of wood, so I think I'm set. But underneath the first mesh layer, I did take the wire's plastic coating (from the newer wires) and heat up that to make a plastic paint.

As far as I'm concerned, any electrical blast can shut the hell up and go play somewhere else. We don't tolerate it's kind around here.

 

You covered all the basics with added benefit of burying it which really adds the insurance factor. I'd say 99.9% confidence factor.

I need to calculate the EM peak wave penetration depth (for my research mainly) and post it since it lets you know just where the safe limit really is.

 

Think 50,000 volts per square foot on the ground from an EMP at 20 miles from a 5 megaton bomb. Not sure of the amps but most unprotected electronics will be fried like a piece of bacon.

You'll also need a new "clean" source of power. Your basic generator isn't going to cut it. Maybe a whole house one with a regulator on it. But then again unless it's protected it's going to be crap too.

Don't forget that anything plugged in will fry from the power surge coming from the transmission lines. Even if they are pretected.

 

i've been asking emp questions for months and reading all the online stuff.
this is the first time that i've actually had the information given in a simple and authoritive manner.
thankyou, isipsycho, very much (and the others) for clarifying two burning questions: grounding and simple shielding.

 

I have a question regarding protecting a house, and since it follows under this thread (instead of building a box, why not your whole house?) perhaps could you do my copper chicken wire (14 gauge wire, pretty thick) method but install it on a bed of rubber/plastic/foam in between your siding and insulation? The windows, I'd suspect, would have to have a fold-down curtain of some kind, I'm guessing you could make a sheet of chainmail connected to a roller and a metal bar for the bottom piece. Slide it down like a garage door, you know? Would this give your house some serious protection, and if so, would it provide blanket protection or just a "first line" of defense for smaller boxes? Would a computer be unprotected while, oh, the less-sophisticated blender be fine?

As for the power source, would solar panels be okay for this? Or would the EMP hit them, fry them, or simply act as if the sun were as far away as the moon for a couple seconds? That's plenty clean, and some solar units can power an entire suburban block indefinitely. Perhaps if there were a compound safe-location, this might be a viable option, if a bit spendy.

 

The house represent a problem in complicated system protection, the same problem the government and military face. Since the EMP wave can hit at any time (relative surprise to most people anyway), active protection is difficult to do. Passive protection means either your in a hardened bunker with back up units ready to swap out.

So, for a house approach assume the EMP will couple with the power lines inside and outside the house, too complicated to protect (and costly) and test against. With that said, most of your appliances are still vulnerable, some more than others. Mainly anything with semi-conductors will cook. It takes so little voltage spikes to kill semi-conductors. So protect your valuable assets by either backups or your able to repair.

Solar panels would most likely survive but the rectifiers and conditioners would cook. Spare parts to repair those critical sub-components would allow you to get your solar panels back into work.

Having permanent metal screens (as long as they are grounded, otherwise the act as antennas and retransmit) on your windows will reduce the EMP peak wave. Some electronics might survive due to the reduced EMP wave.

 

again...valuable stuff.i had heard conflicting stories on ther fate of my solar panels.
the gereral theory states that my panels should be fine, but the blocking diodes, charge controller and inverter are toast.
this seems to affirm that. so, sppare diodes and controller and inverter in the faraday gage.
cool...i can do that.

 

I have a plug connector from my solar panel to the charge controller. If I have time, I'll unplug it and let EMP wave ride out. My controller is also housed in a aluminium box too. I keep tons of diodes around too. I mean, it's not like it's going to be a surprise attack given that there's a lot of signs and warnings before the attack, right? Of course, if it a surprise attack, we too are not going to be around to worry about EMP for the heat and blast wave will cook us in on time.

 

So essentially, just make a collection of protected storage containers and then proceed with stocking them with spare parts or backups of all your sensitive equipment. I already have archives of CD and DVD stacks buried underground but this new box is definitely going to hold more than what's already in it. My ultimate goal is to form a community somewhere and build a castle (with a SHTF scenario in mind) and we pool our resources.

Going to need a faraday bunker...

 

Going to need a faraday bunker...

That's the best option, with your spare repair parts and critical systems your GtoG. Just remember to wait a few days after an EMP strike, the E3 pulse is the tricky one...

 

Thank you for all the helpful information. I understand the theoretical concept of grounding. My question is, how does one do this on a practical level? For a Faraday cage, I am using metal boxes inside of cardboard boxes, all of which are inside of a galvanized metal trash can with a very tight lid. This is kept inside, on the second floor of a home. I do not have the option to bury it.

What do I do to ground it? (Please be specific, as I'm not knowledgeable about electrical terms!)

 

If you don't have the option to bury it, then likely you can't bury a grounding rod. Luckily the electrical companies do this for you All of your plumbing should already be grounded so if your house was built correctly, you should be able to wrap some copper wire around any metal pipe in your house and use that as your ground wire. You could also wire it directly to an existing ground wire in your house, but if your not familiar with electricity I wouldn't suggest it. Oh, or you could remove a screw off the face plate of an electrical outlet, wrap some copper wire around that, and screw it back in. The face plate of an electrical outlet will definitely be grounded.

 

Grounding 101. Copper (or other well conducting material) rod section at least 6-8 feet depending on soil type. If your soil type is alkaline your ok, if its really sandy, you'll have to go deeper. Its all about how conductive the ground is to dissipate all those electrons. A cheat is to use the utility power line grounding points

Since the pulse is so quick, the closer your Faraday cage is to the grounding point the better. So the shorter the cable is to your Faraday cage and the grounding rod the better.

If you can't sink your grounding rod in far enough you can do a lay down method. Just dig a trench about 10-15 feet long and about 2-3 feet deep, lay your grounding cable/rod in the trench and bury.

Now here is another step that is very useful but causes your cables to rust out. Use salt to saturate the bury points. It increases the conductivity of your soil which in turn dissipates the EMP pulse much better. Of course you have to check your cable every so often to make sure its not a huge pile of rust.

 

On generator, I would think that our laptop power brick can take a bit of power variations so there's no need for power regulation? To regulate a whole house is not going to be cheap and unnecessary. I don't think we need to regulate lighting if you use those wide voltage CF lights and heaters and cookers don't need regulation.

 

The only way to protect is hide any electronics you can in old microwaves... that is the only thing we have in homes that will work

 

Actually the microwave door is NOT EMP proof, the screen holes are for (obviously) microwave screening out only. An EMP has frequencies much greater than microwave and will get through the door. So if you use a microwave you'll have to put some conducting material to cover the door completely and seal it around its edge.

 

This sure is a complicated matter. I can't really get my head around this whole EMP thing. Is a flash drive or unplugged hard drive really safe? In that case, why isn't it safe to just unplug the computer?

 

Is there a detailed guide with pictures available on how to make and test a EMP-proof faraday-cage?

 

I live in an Earthship (underground ramned earth tire walls) TOTALLY off grid. I make my own electricity with solar system and wind turbine and have a small back up generator. I am also looking into the possibility of getting a hydrogenerator for the creek that runs on property. My question is can I easily or cheaply protect my home and system from emp? The roof is apprx 12 inches under maybe slightly more. The south face which is mostly window is open to collect solar heat during day. I was thnking of installing those industrial metal roll up garage doors on tracks over windows for shutters. Any input would be great. PM me if you would..

 

have a backup inverter thats not conected to the power and just ground everything the emp is a pulse of eletricity that will want to goto ground as quickly as possible so proper grounding can help. Simple eletronics wont be taken out but complex boards most likely will.. Ie car windows work but car wont start..

 

Does anyone know if electronic safes would be affected? I have most of my weapons stored in safes with touchpads rather than combo locks. Would really suck if something bad happened and I could not get into my safes.

 

They could be but most safes have a key backup under the face plate..

 

It's good to take precautions. Just remember unless you are going to spend 24x7 underground in a faraday cage everything will be exposed at some point.

 

I'd like to thank isopsycho and haha49 for all their useful information. EMP is a great topic of interest to me that I would like to discuss in more detail with people who know what they are talking about. I have two questions I'd like to start my inquiry with. First, how would a storage unit handle an EMP? Its a metal box and I assume that it's grounded. How would it work as a Faraday cage by itself and what could be added to make it 99% effective? Second....please, if anyone knows, explain the effect on cars. Vehicles seems to be the most debated, some saying that the vehicle itself acts as a faraday cage, others saying vehicles before the computers were added in the early 70's would be ok and newer ones would be fried, etc etc. Is there anyone in the know specifically about the effects on cars? Assuming cars would get fried, what are some effective shielding measures?