EMP Vulnerability

Basement garage would work, provided there was enough lead shielding or it was deep enough underground.

The best way to protect your electronics is to enclose them in a Faraday cage. And as soon as they are commercially available, let us know.

I guess, but we'll have much bigger problems if an EMP hits us than whether our cars will start or not.

Cars are very susceptable to EMP... as are all home electronics.

Lead shielding would protect against certain types of radiation, but isn't needed for EMP protection.

If you are really concerned about it you can make your own Faraday cage for your car inside a garage... basically, make a 2x4 open frame that surrounds your car and cover it with metal screening... like copper or galvanized steel screen. All the sheets of metal screen have to be very well electrical bonded approximately every 3" or so (spot solder) along the seams. You could also buy one of the all-metal vehicle storage sheds and store it in that, again making sure there are no gaps and all individual pieces of metal are well bonded together.

The hardest part to close gaps and ensure it's bonded will be the door.

The cage doesn't have to be grounded to work as a Farady cage, but it is recommended in case it should come in contact with line voltage (like a frayed extension cord). It would be better to blow the fuse/circuit breaker than create a giant piece of uninsulated metal at

You can also buy rolls of plastic sheeting that has a metal film vapor deposited on it. Your can then heat-seal the sheets together to form a giant airtight bag around the car. Throw a couple pounds of dessicant in there, suck out the air and back fill it with nitrogen and you can preserve the car for a pretty long time too!

Survivalists have already thought this one through... check out some of their web sites and you'll get much better ideas than mine.

and just think of how much you can enjoy driving around in your Maxima

- as your teeth and hair fall out from radiation sickness...it would be a glorious 3 days.

Good point! Made me laugh a little...

But actually there's a very good probability (if you're half lucky and located upwind and/or half smart and stay in a shelter) that you will survive for quite a while afterwards. What's far more likely is the other surviving mobs will kill you for the car you carefully protected. There ain't no cop to call even if your cell phone worked.

And one tactic was to light off monster hydrogen bursts exo-atmospheric above population/power/communication centers specifically for the purpose of exploiting EMP effects without the brick and mortar damage and radiation poisoning effects.

Actually, my idea was to preserve the car to use as a power source -- eg., electical power to charge batteries etc. I agree that driving around after any type of disaster would be disasterous with unruly mobs etc.

was out looking at my Maxima, thinking, what could I eat ...??

Thinking that the head liner might be mighty tasty...-:)

and that tire jack the car comes with - nice for wacking your (tastey) nieghbors in the head with,,,-:)

Lets all pray that something like this never happens.

and Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all - even if you are not smart enough to own an EMP proof, Maxima, with a edible head liner, and multi purpose tire jack -:)

There used to be, and maybe still is, an EMP Test Structure located somewhere near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I saw it there while flying in to the airport on a bright sunny day.

There is a picture of the Trestle in the URL below as well as some other neat stuff.

Some great pictures here.

rtt