"Mild taste of an EMP"......

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by CATO, Jul 3, 2012.


  1. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

  2. jim2

    jim2 Monkey+++

    An electrical engineer friend of mine that specializes in RF freqs for the defense industry told me that EMP was mostly not the threat most folks thought it to be. He and a few others figure the small threat could be foiled on cars by attaching a small chain to the chassis to drag on the ground thereby grounding the vehicle. Now, I don't know what to think about this.
    jim
     
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    It's been a whole lot of years since I've seen one, but it used to be fairly common practice to drag a chain (on trucks, mostly and tankers in particular to eliminate sparking near fuels) or a conducting fabric strap anchored to the car's chassis. Way back then, it was said to eliminate static on the AM radios that were ubiquitous before FM became the norm. I've not noticed static on the AM bands recently, might be the radios are filtered or otherwise arranged to control or eliminate it. I can tell you that chains rattle and bounce around rather randomly and will bounce up and hit the bottom of the vehicle rather often.

    I'll defer to your EE friend, but his approach differs greatly from my exposure (military related) of 20 years ago. I hope he's right.
     
  4. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    Maybe...we just don't really know exactly. But, are you willing to bet your well-being on your friend's educated guess? And what's he going to do about the windows?


    You would've thought these guys would've been aware of the chain trick.
     
  5. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    Davis offers a solar radiation sensor (Egads, $160 MSLP) which would measure when it arrived, amount, and peaks at your location.

    Even today, the tank is grounded and it is all "safe." There is a potential for a static discharge with people who start pumping then get into the car until the nozzle clicks off.

    If he knew what voltage, amperage, duration, etc; he was designing his system to handle he could. Although I am sure there are designs which would work; there are too many unknowns to say a chain would work.
    It is similar to gutters and the downspout; how many inches per minute decides if the downspout flows or overflows.
     
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