Two of my flashlights have replaceable bulbs. The others have a built-in LED.

Jeanette Isabelle

General rules for EMP:

The longer the wire or antenna is, the more susceptible a device is to damage from an EMP. Battery powered devices without antennas should be more resistant to EMP damage than those with antennas, and much more than those plugged into a power outlet.

Simple semiconductors tend to be more resilient than complex semiconductors. An LED flashlight should in general be more resistant to EMP damage than a laptop CPU, for example. A flashlight that uses direct drive (which I think all the Maglite LED models do) is likely to be more resistant to EMP damage than one with a more complex driver.

A Faraday cage is pretty easy to construct, and if constructed correctly provides very robust protection against EMP damage.

EMP is likely to come from a nuclear detonation. So I would assume that if you & your kit is affected by the EMP, you'll be dead or in very bad shape by either the shock waves or radiation.

There's more than one way to create an EMP.

Jeanette Isabelle

Light sticks have pretty limited utility but I keep some around. They're cool and nonflammable so they can't start a fire. They don't need batteries and they keep for quite a while. On the other hand their output is low and the "burn time" is short(ish) depending on your POV. They're inexpensive enough and compact enough that I keep some for the limited range of things they work well for (mostly camping for use as markers).

I tested one in the middle of the night, and it was bright enough to get the job done.

Jeanette Isabelle

Do they actually still make them? I thought they had mostly been replaced by similar looking tubes with LED lights inside. Do the real ones you have, have date stamps? Their shelf life is just a few years, and they break easily in storage, and it's not really possible to check one for breakage without unsealing it and diminishing the shelf life even further. I'd worry about getting old or busted ones, so I'm glad that the one you tested worked.

Regarding EMP, one of the tales associated with it was that the advanced (for the time) US fighter jets of the cold war era were vulnerable to it, because of their IC-based electronics. The opposing Soviet fighter jets were less advanced and used vacuum tubes, and that turned out to be an advantage because of less EMP vulnerability.

Remembering that makes me think incandescent flashlights are likely to be pretty invulnerable. I still have a few and I guess I'll keep some of them. Simple LED lights (direct drive with a resistor ballast) may also be less vulnerable than lights with voltage converters, microprocessors, etc. I do like my direct drive lights and continue to use them now and then.

What did I do today to prepare? I'm not sure it helped prepare for anything, but I spent a ridiculous amount of time researching tiny headlamps, partly in response to a thread that Doug opened. I posted some findings there and have a few more to post.

Cyalume sticks are good long after the "expiration date". I've used sticks that were three or four years past without issue. Maybe they don't glow quite as long, I didn't time them, but it wasn't enough less that I noticed.

The batch I have is said to expire on April 2026.

Jeanette Isabelle

I talked to a nurse, asking for natural ways to combat COVID-19. She says I need Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, and Zinc.

Today I decided to start a daily regimen of Emergen-C Immune Plus. I checked both the original Emergen-C and Emergen-C Immune Plus. The Immune Plus, not the original, has 1,111% Vitamin C, 125% Vitamin D3 and 91% Zinc.

Disclaimer: I'm not giving out medical advice. I'm stating what I'm doing.

Jeanette Isabelle