Der Alte

sojourner, the answer is that all electronics could be fried including your safe. Thats exactly why I went with a manual dial.

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Its a shame that youth is wasted on the young.

Raptorq7r13

And exactly why I'm on the market for a manual dial. Doesn't have to be EMP, just a power outage... Though I always figured they'd have some kind of key or manual override for the safes. I guess not.

Gonna go get that book now.

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Give us this day our daily lead...

ExactlyMyPoint

OK, I am not even going to comment on the EMP acronym.

But it does illustrate just how dependent we all are on electricity.

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Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Unisaw

I read that book a few weeks ago. It was depressing but was very good in an eye-opening kind of way. I usually think of having to be self-sufficient for a week or two at most; surviving for a year is quite another matter.

edr9x23super

I think of the EMP phenomenon like I think of the Y2K fearmongering that went around at the turn of the century; I say this because I remember well the spirited discussions I had with people who were absolutely convinced that we were on the path to anarchy when the computers and the calendars rolled over on 1/1/2000.

What happened? absolutely nothing. Now, comparing an EMP with Y2k is comparing Apples and Oranges, but the fearmongering is the same. So here are some facts:

If the EMP weapon were to go off high in our atmosphere, yes, it would most likely trip the electrical grids nationwide, but understand that those grids would be back in a matter of hours or days at the most. Why? because of all the ground fault and surge protections built into the grid. And I don't care how powerful the pulse is, it is still going to ground potential eventually. Power plants have the best earth grounds in the grid, with huge copper conductors going way down into bedrock, as does all of the switchyards, etc.

Yes, there will be computers fried yes there will be cell phones and motor vehicles out of order, but understand that the power, especially emergency power will be brought back in a matter of hours for smaller units that can be started quickly, and longer for the larger base loaded units. But the power will come back. An EMP is a voltage pulse, but it doesn't have a tremendous amount of electrical current behind it. Current is what causes the damage, and thats why the cell phones and computers everywhere will die a horrible death because they operate an very minute amounts of current. A house, or a city street or an air conditioner does not. To fry equipment like that takes a sustained burst of much higher current levels that an EMP blast simply cannot supply. The russians understood this during the cold war, that is why they were still using vacuum tube-based electronics in their fighter and bomber aircraft even into the collapse of the soviet union. So any solid-state or vacuum tube based equipment will survive, aas well as electrical equipment that can withstand more than a few amperes of current continuous........

Yes, a lot of stuff will fry, but not much that will keep us from getting water, air conditioning and critical supplies. And spare parts for the electronics will not fry because most of it today is packaged in static-free packaging and the equipment is not hooked up or more importantly grounded to anything.........

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"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined". - Patrick Henry

tbrenke

posably
not so fast on this one.
an EMP is an electron pulse. any exposed wire will pick it up. And any coil of wire will multiply the signal.


Because of the intense electromagnetic fields (about 10 kV/m to 50 kV/m ) and wide area of coverage, the HEMP can induce large voltages and currents in power lines, communication cables, radio towers, and other long conductors serving a facility. Some other notable collectors of EMP include railroad tracks, large antennas, pipes, cables, wires in buildings, and metal fencing. Although materials underground are partially shielded by the ground, they are still collectors, and these collectors deliver the EMP energy to some larger facility. This produces surges that can destroy the connected device, such as, power generators or long distance telephone systems.

Semiconductor devices fail when they encounter an EMP because of the local heating that occurs. When a semi-conductive device absorbs the EMP energy, it displaces the resulting heat that is produced relatively slowly when compared to the time scale of the EMP. Because the heat is not dissipated quickly, the semiconductor can quickly heat up to temperatures near the melting point of the material. Soon the device will short and fail. This type of failure is call thermal second-breakdown failure.

I think this part is true. because it is in a static bag the charge would build on the outside and ground its self and not be able to enter the bag.

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"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution, which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." -1792, James Madison
There are always too many Democratic, Republican and never enough U.S. congressmen.

Captain Crunch

Folks, this is a book review thread. It is a work of fiction and may or may not be technically accurate.

Let's leave the theoretical discussions of EMP weapons for another time and place.

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When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier.

Rudyard Kipling

Terry

shooterX

I bought this book yesterday and started reading it, I am already half way 1/3 into the book, hooked so far.

TheGreatGonzo

Does the characters in this novel deal with defensive issues (firearms; ammunition; tactics; etc) at all or does the author gloss over/ignore it?
Thanks,
Gonzo

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Sometimes good people have to do bad things to bad people to keep bad people from doing bad things to good people.

First Sgt

YES..It deals with defensive issues.

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Sometimes in life you have to stand your ground. It's a hard lesson to learn and even most adults don't get it, but in the end only I can be responsible for my life. If faced with any type of adversity, only I can overcome it. Waiting for someone else to take responsibility is a long fruitless wait.