THIS ^^^
It will be to control the flow of information. And the "sunspots" will get the blame. But don't worry, The Gobberment is on the job and will save us. Estimated time till restoration is approx. 6 months or more. JMO
lol I was only off by 8 years. But the sky was still fantastic looking. Sadly the amount of construction in our areaIt was 2012…
July 2012 solar storm - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large and strong coronal mass ejection (CME) event that occurred on July 23 that year. It missed Earth with a margin of approximately nine days, as the equator of the Sun rotates around its own axis with a period of about 25 days.
Solar storm of 2012
The region that produced the outburst was thus not pointed directly towards Earth at that time. The strength of the eruption was comparable to the 1859 Carrington event that caused damage to electrical equipment worldwide, which at that time consisted mostly of telegraph systems.
The coronal mass ejection, as photographed by STEREODate July 23, 2012 Type Coronal mass ejection Outcome Missed striking the Earth by nine days Part of Solar cycle 24
Overview
The event occurred in 2012, near the local maximumof sunspots that can be seen in this graph.
The eruption tore through Earth's orbit, hitting the STEREO-A spacecraft. The spacecraft is a solar observatory equipped to measure such activity, and because it was far away from the Earth and thus not exposed to the strong electrical currents that can be induced when a CME hits the Earth's magnetosphere, it survived the encounter and provided researchers with valuable data.
Based on the collected data, the eruption consisted of two separate ejections which were able to reach exceptionally high strength as the interplanetary medium around the Sun had been cleared by a smaller CME four days earlier.
The event occurred at a time of high sunspot activity during Solar cycle 24.
Predicted effects
Had the CME hit the Earth, it is likely that it would have inflicted serious damage to electronic systems on a global scale. A 2013 study estimated that the economic cost to the United States would have been between US$600 billion and $2.6 trillion. Ying D. Liu, professor at China's State Key Laboratory of Space Weather, estimated that the recovery time from such a disaster would have been about four to ten years.
I understand. Spent 2.5 years In Nashville and then St. Louis. Nashville was ok, culture wise, but no real good place for star gazing. Too much light pollution even with miles out into the countryside.lol I was only off by 8 years. But the sky was still fantastic looking. Sadly the amount of construction in our area
the last few years has really dimmed our sky view from what it was.
The amplifiers might be.Presumably fiber-optic cables are not at risk.
SHOULD… the Internet go down, the best response to have “on hand”, and safely stored beforehand (galvanized trash can as a farraday cage), would be a couple of laptops, as many deep cycle batteries as you could store (not on a cement floor), a couple of solar panels, some routers, and a few cantennas. All you’d need to create a mesh network, for local farm or village comms.
If you’re truly worried about no Internet, this is how you plan for it.
[and maybe a copy of a certain library…]
But, nothing compares to the inky black nights of Wyoming for most of the state.
Trouble is most people wont heed the warning to put their laptops and phones an other stuff in a garbage csn.SHOULD… the Internet go down, the best response to have “on hand”, and safely stored beforehand (galvanized trash can as a farraday cage), would be a couple of laptops, as many deep cycle batteries as you could store (not on a cement floor), a couple of solar panels, some routers, and a few cantennas. All you’d need to create a mesh network, for local farm or village comms.
If you’re truly worried about no Internet, this is how you plan for it.
[and maybe a copy of a certain library…]
I am always amazed at the depth of your technical grasp, and willingness to share it. Unfortunately I don’t even know what you said ...Check, Check, and a few more Checks...
Have 6 large crates already done, but these I'm in the process of modding them so that they run on 10-36V (straight solar). The older T and X series Lenovos have the same power connector as the 8MM round Goal Zero systems do.
View attachment 292179
Also working on some LoRa Gateways...
View attachment 292180
I also have a shipping crate/pallet of Unifi Airgrid M2 HPs (that work well with certain other meshing firmware as well).
Throw in the options of running the "Baofeng APRS cable" with all sorts of both Apple and Android apps, as well as that cable works great with laptop headset connectors......
You get the idea.
Would a steel building shield sufficiently?SHOULD… the Internet go down, the best response to have “on hand”, and safely stored beforehand (galvanized trash can as a farraday cage), would be a couple of laptops, as many deep cycle batteries as you could store (not on a cement floor), a couple of solar panels, some routers, and a few cantennas. All you’d need to create a mesh network, for local farm or village comms.
If you’re truly worried about no Internet, this is how you plan for it.
[and maybe a copy of a certain library…]
Yes and no. The entire building would need earth grounding, which is doable. But then, every door and every window would need a solid grounding, including heavy copper screening over each window, shunted to a deeply buried copper rod, hammered deep into the ground.Would a steel building shield sufficiently?
I am always amazed at the depth of your technical grasp, and willingness to share it. Unfortunately I don’t even know what you said ...
however, I am off the grid now for 11 years, and do have a few things in aluminum Mylar bags, (small inverters, Walkie talkies , Small rechargeable battery chargers) but how does one protect one’s solar panels‘ diodes? Even if I draped some fine copper mesh entirely around them wouldn’t they still be vulnerable through the 100’ connector cables going to the battery room? How would you protect the charge controllers and Heavy duty inverter ?
Thanks Loup!The first picture is one of the stacks of Lenovo T and X series (T410, T420... and X201 and X220 series) laptops that I have been working on getting ready with either 500GB or 1TB SSD (Solid State Drives) so that they are almost bombproof. I have loaded Linux on them with all of the radio and comms programs I could think of, along with all sorts of other useful programs and LOTS of prep info and PDFs. The Lenovo's themselves are very durable, but still light and fairly power efficient, BUT the input power to run them needs to be in the 19V to 21 volt range to work well. The neat trick is that they have plenty of room inside them to shove a small DC to DC Buck/Boost converter that will take any wild voltage (think solar panel or odd power source) that is in the 8-48 volt range and either buck (reduce) it to 20 Volts regulated, or Boost (increase) it to 20 volts. I have the input limits set "safe at 10-36V, just to keep the input current levels down on the larger models (T410s can eat power IF you have dual drives in them). What you end up with is a good TSHTF laptop that you can do a LOT with. The older laptops can be bought already refurbished for $100-200 if you look around, but if you are willing to do the work, you can pick them up for $25 and under.
The second picture is of another project I am working on, LoRa (LOng RAnge) and LoRaWan (and LOng RAnge Wireless Area Network) systems, including a "few" TTGO T-Beam V1.1 units in groups on two different frequency bands (915 and 434MHz). These devices are basically a "gateway" between another system (think your laptop, tablet, or smartphone) and a network made up of a few, or a few dozen of these LoRa gateways. You pair a T-Beam with your device on your end, either by cable, Bluetooth or WiFi, and then put if up in the air (they make sealed cases for them, or you can print your own), and charge them with a small solar panel. Or you can put them on top of your backpack if you are mobile. Then, all of the other people you want to keep in contact with also do the same and then communications are as simple as opening the app, and sending text (or other things depending on the app), to one or more remote "nodes". Range can be up to line of sight, which if you can get the units up high enough, can be a few miles. But here is the neat trick, if you have the right MESH network software on the LoRa gateways (in this case the T-Beams), each one acts as a smart repeater so that if they "hear" a message, and if it is not directed to them, they will retransmit (repeat) it on to the next "hop" (next LoRa device in range) so that you can easily get many miles between stations. In actuality, the MESH automatically figures out who is in the range of who, and how best to get the messages through the web of connections to get from sender to recipient. Here is some more info on the unit and the Meshtastic software that runs on the T-Beams (and other hardware):
Software | Meshtastic
meshtastic.org
The other thing I mentioned was the APRS cable that many places sell (amazon: https://www.amazon.com/BTECH-APRS-K1-Interface-APRSDroid-Compatible/dp/B01LMIBAZW ). It links the audio headphone jack (that is actually both a stereo headset jack and microphone jack in one 4 conductor jack) that is what is used on most tablets, phones, and laptops now days, to the two pin jack on the side of a Baofeng handheld radio (the infamous UV-5r for example), or most Kenwood handheld radios. This allows you to use software on your laptop, or an app on your phone or tablet (AudioModem, APRSDroid, DroidPSK, FLand (Fldigi for Android: fldigi - Browse /AndFlmsg at SourceForge.net )and quite a few other ones) to communicate through the radio to another radio within range (miles, or even more if you have the antennas elevated well). Again, low cost, and you probably have everything but the cables (one per radio/computer setup).
_____
As far as the personal solar and PV systems damage potential from CMEs, I would not worry about it. You don't need a Faraday shield for CME, you just need to unplug it just before and during the event. Keep in mind that you will have a head's up if you monitor solar events. It's not like it is going to hit out of the blue instantly. With CMEs, just like HEMP EMP attacks, it's the long lines (think over 100s of feet), that will be the "antennas" that pick up the signal. 100 feet of PARALLEL DC input line (think of the way 300-450 ohm ladder line antenna wire works here) is not going to pick up significant signal to damage things during a CME or HEMP attack. 1,000 feet may "see" a measurable level of the pulse, but I seriously doubt any damage will occur. 5,000 to 10,000 feet would be my max limit, but NOBODY should have designed a solar PV power system with those lengths of cable as the power losses would be insane.
My computers and most of my other systems are NOT in Faraday shielding, which is really designed to shield things against HPM EMP (High Powered Microwave EMP) or HERF (High Energy RF), and CMEs and HEMP attacks are not HPM. Everyody is free to take whatever precautions as they feel necessary, I don't live close enough to a military base, or comms center for me to worry about HERF or HPM EMP attacks (which are fairly small area attacks, you can't HPM a whole city or even more than a few city blocks of area). CMEs could happen, but I have enough sensors and other systems up that would alert me long beforehand and start disconnecting things. If you are enough of a target, or live close enough to a "high value target" that someone might HPM or HERF attack, they may also just nuke it, so keep that in mind. And think about what the possible reasons for 30 some countries all to start practicing landing their military aircraft on civilian highways and roads. The thought of your enemies nuking your bases would be a good reason to practice that... Plan accordingly.
Thanks Loup!
that comes a lot closer to me understanding the gist of your first post, and the info about the laptops I might even be able to translate into action on my end. Also the info regarding the solar setups. Very helpful.
as to the comms setup, my own lack of familiarity with radio and networks jargon is on me, but I do have a few friends that might be able to translate that into action so I will pass that on. THANKYOU very much!
Stupid question from the Kiddies table (feel free to tell me to STFU and let the adults talk).
Have seen a few ATOM operating system small laptops running XP. Are these too outdated to be usable/useful in any of the set ups you are describing??
Dang it! No windows but got electric coming in and no way to disconnect that because it's underground 12-2. Oh well back to the trash can. my next project is a cb antenna.Not fancy like y'alls hams but I picked the cb up for $10 and I'll store it in the trash can till needed.Yes and no. The entire building would need earth grounding, which is doable. But then, every door and every window would need a solid grounding, including heavy copper screening over each window, shunted to a deeply buried copper rebar, hammered out bin for the ground.
Now, here’s the hard part.
Anything coming into the building would need a way to COMPLETELY disengage from coming inside the building. We’re talking about ::
==> electrical power
==> water pipe
==> phone land line
==> Internet
==> any other utility bringing service inside the building
Normally, you can keep these open and providing your everyday needs. But, you’ll need to keep abreast of every global threat and be able to manually disconnect from the outside world instantly the moment…if you can. Every one of those vectors can bring the unimaginable huge static discharge inside the building to finish the job of the attack.
This means living on the raw bleeding edge of multiple news sources on all the time trying to be aware of the moments leading up to an EMP of CME threat inbound.
In other worlds, it’s doable, but expensive and not without chinks in your armor.
I may start a thread or two in Comm/Tech about this subject instead of deviating this thread too much.
There are quite a few 32 bit Linux distros out there still, and they do work with ATOM based systems well. Just keep in mind that with the limited memory (and limited (3.3GB) memory addressing), you won't be able to run a lot of different programs at one time. Also keep in mind that you may not have all of the new programs in the software repositories for that distro, but I am willing to bet that there will be more than enough, and you may be able to build from source on the others.
I do have a few of both the Lenovo ATOM based ones as well as the Acer Aspire series (and a Dell Micro that keeps popping up around the workbench...).
Yes and no. The entire building would need earth grounding, which is doable. But then, every door and every window would need a solid grounding, including heavy copper screening over each window, shunted to a deeply buried copper rod, hammered deep into the ground.
Now, here’s the hard part.
Anything coming into the building would need a way to COMPLETELY disengage from coming inside the building. We’re talking about ::
==> electrical power
==> water pipe
==> phone land line
==> Internet
==> any other utility bringing service inside the building
Normally, you can keep these open and providing for your everyday needs. But, you’ll need to keep abreast of every global threat and be able to manually disconnect from the outside world instantly the moment a threat is heard…if you can.
Every one of those vectors can bring the unimaginably huge static discharge inside the building to finish the job of the attack.
This means living on the raw bleeding edge of multiple news sources on all the time, trying to be aware of the moments leading up to an inbound EMP or CME threat.
In other worlds, it’s doable, but expensive and not without chinks in your armor.
Mainly discusses wireless communications (think WiFi, but in a local neighborhood) using computers - without having a real working connection to the internet. Mesh tech refers to additional software running on each of the individual WiFi connections/node/wireless router that is able to automagically "discover" (sniff-out) other neighborhood "nodes" and measure/determine how reliable the wireless connection path is between any given neighbor's "WiFi" node/wireless router that is running this additional mesh software feature.Likewise, I appreciate all the benefit you're bringing to the conversation, I intend to save these discussions you all are having until such time as I understand enough of what is being conveyed to form an intelligible question.