should we keep our old washer as a farady cage for EMP? anybody know?

L

lynnie

Membership Revoked
Hi.....I need to know by tonight what's getting hauled away....if we stick a broken Sears top loading washer in the garage and put a radio, etc, inside, does it serve as a faraday cage?

I've read some postings that say a radio in a box isn't going to be hurt by an EMP anyway...is this idea overkill?

More prep pack-rat syndrome? :lol: Or smart?

Thanks for any advice.
 
LoupGarou

LoupGarou

Ancient Fuzzball
lynnie said:
Hi.....I need to know by tonight what's getting hauled away....if we stick a broken Sears top loading washer in the garage and put a radio, etc, inside, does it serve as a faraday cage?

I've read some postings that say a radio in a box isn't going to be hurt by an EMP anyway...is this idea overkill?

More prep pack-rat syndrome? :lol: Or smart?

Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...


If the device (radio/tv/whatever) has either a collapsible antenna or removeable one, remove it. If it has any cords or cables, remove them. Once that is done, your device is OK. HEMP attacks are killers of grid connected devices. A portable battery operated radio with a small (less than 18" antenna) can be on and running when it hits and not be damaged (although the station that it was listening to may not be up and running). I would not bother keeping the old washer.

Simple rule, if there is a cord, cable, or antenna over 19", you might want to worry. If the device has to be plugged into one or more grid connections (power/phone/CATV), then you might want to kiss it goodbye if a HEMP hits.

Loup Garou
 
Airborne Falcon

Airborne Falcon

Resident Ethicist
lynnie ... I wouldn't bother with keeping an old washing machine around for anything like that. IMHO, if it really came down to it, the best "farraday cage" thingy in a pinch, is probably a plain metal trash can.

There have been some excellent recent threads on farraday cages and emp. :)

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=54546

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=142814

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=178714

Good luck figuring it out. By the time I usually do, I realize that if we get hit with a big EMP burst, there will not be enough things running to really matter IMHO. It'll take radio and TV a long time to get back up and running. Radio, maybe not. They probably have a plan for radio.

Russ
 
T

tsk

Membership Revoked
Bubba> me? I don't know what Myth Busters is. (must be tv show?)

What'd I miss.

tsk, tsk...:wvflg:
 
Bubba Zanetti

Bubba Zanetti

Veteran Member
They built a farady cage last night as part of a test to see if cell phones really do disrupt navagation equiptment on airliners.... or is the 'ban' just a ruse to force passangers to use the seat phones at a million dollars per minute.

Result: under some circumstances, like one in 1000, personal electronic devices can disrupt navigation equiptment. An airliner went down in Germany years ago killing all and according to the black boxes, cell phone use disrupted the navigation. All equiptment is shielded now, so even a signal generator that puts out a signal 1000x what a normal cell phone would, did not disrupt the modern equiptment.

The FAA, to be hyper safe, still bans all electronic device use during flight via federal law.
 
T

tsk

Membership Revoked
funny thing is, maybe you'll SAVE your radio from EMP, but will the radio station's equipment be saved? :ld:

If they ain't broadcasting, it doesn't do any good to have a radio.

tsk, tsk...:wvflg:
 
Christian for Israel

Christian for Israel

Knight of Jerusalem
sis, i don't think the metal case of the washer is intact enough to act as a faraday cage. most have fairly large holes in back and underneath. personally, if i find an old microwave i will save it to put out GMRS radios in, along with a small wind-up am/fm/sw receiver, but as russ said, a galvanized trash can would work just as well.
 
J

jlee

Inactive
Is LoupGarou correct? [post #2]

If I had a laptop which wasn't plugged in and didn't have an attached cord, would it be okay?

If the antenna on my old portable radio is collapsed (9" long in that position), would it be okay?
 
D

data junkie

Membership Revoked
I'd toss the washer. It takes up too much room. The enamel would have to be filed off so that all of the edges/lid have metal-on-metal contact, and so it would rust out anyway.
 
LoupGarou

LoupGarou

Ancient Fuzzball
jlee said:
If I had a laptop which wasn't plugged in and didn't have an attached cord, would it be okay?

If the antenna on my old portable radio is collapsed (9" long in that position), would it be okay?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you take the cords off, remove any other cables, collapse the antennas, and remove any other conductors longer than 18 inches, then it will be just fine. For the items that have undetachable conductors or antennas from 19 to 62 inches, there is a chance for damage, but not too bad (this is the reason that many countries have moved from HF to 300MHz for local point to point comms, like the ISR band at 390MHz for the Squad radios). The Russians did far more active testing with HEMP than we did, and came to the conclusion that 70MHz and above is safe enough to use in the battlefield during HEMP blasts. I have a Kenwood TH-78A that has been in the test chambers several times with antenna on and no damage. FRS, GMRS, VHF/UHF Amateur, pocket TV's and other small items will be just fine. Grid attached devices will be a different story...

Loup Garou
EE degree with more than 15 years in electronics (more than half in RF design) and 5+ years in a lab dealing with EMP and EMP protection.
 
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