Right. My last post on the subject (long):

Let’s start with a brief definition:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/e/el/electromagnetic_pulse.htm

Now on to some readily available internet “information”

A bit specialized, but a synopsis of some real world testing on COTS Ham gear (and the technique is not exactly news – the news is that there is COTS protection available:
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Falls/1984/newfact.htm

This is an example of mostly crap info that tosses out some nearly correct mostly irrelevant info and then authoritatively leaps to some (wrong) conclusions without offering one bit of real-world verifiable information: http://www.alpharubicon.com/basicnbc/empfacts.html

This is much older information than the 1997 date indicates; I saw and touched all of those up close and personal well over a decade before that date at the source, CERL. In the early 1980s I did the construction management for their EMP generator, which when completed was (at that time) the world’s largest non-nuclear EMP generator. I have in more recent times toured much larger and more sophisticated non-nuclear EMP generators. At the time and for all practical purposes, nearly all of the testing since was to evaluate the effects of nuclear near-misses on military equipment and has virtually no useful extrapolation to the rest of the world. (doh!) It was often to test a worst-case scenario, not best case. A military formation or ship can take a sever blast and lethal dose of radioactivity but still continue to finish a specific tactical or even operational mission if the systems are all working well enough. That’s not relevant to the rest of the world for the most part, yet this is some of the root information that continues to drive the “Clad your house in tin and ground it” experts (Your house will not be standing if you need that sort of EMP shielding). Actually, a lot of these approaches had/have as much or more to do with TEMPESTizing electronics (protection from electronic eavesdropping) and serendipitously provided a brute-force protection against EMP effects (but not blast or radiation). These non-nuclear EMP generators are also not perfect simulators because the frequency characteristics of these are NOT exactly the same as that from a nuclear weapon as well as some other reasons – you can follow that fact deductively to some correct logical conclusions:
http://www.cecer.army.mil/facts/sheets/FL16.html


This is a tough call; use with caution. There is some surprisingly accurate information here AND some wildly erroneous information salted throughout as well. Worth reading if you are willing to be a little skeptical and check out some of the claims (I mean, some of it is pure crap, but there are many solid nuggets here as well as well):
http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/empprotection.htm

I can pick a lot of little nits with this, such as substituting “may” for “will” and tossing in a few “some”s in the EMP paragraph, as well as bits of the Chem section, but it’s not a bad read and he’s got the important bits close enough for you and me: http://www.survival.com/cbr.htm

I believe I can dig up some definitive scientific open-source info, but so can you and it will not be light reading. EMP is a small fraction of the total energy released, even in an enhanced weapon used the right way. It is not very relevant to survivors of a nuclear terrorist attack compared to the primary and secondary effects of the (MUCH larger) direct-effect energy releases.

In the event of an all-out nuclear attack by a MAJOR power (you’ll have fingers left over using only one hand to count), the important effects of deliberate EMP attacks again are largely irrelevant to survivors for lots of obvious reasons. If there were deliberate EMP attacks.

If a minor power with the ability to conduct a significant EMP-only attack did so, we would survive and it would probably be an act of national suicide on the attacker’s part.

It’s not worth spending a lot of effort or worry on unless you are in certain businesses (nothing to do with this forum) or have certain equipment needed to respond as a volunteer in emergencies (perhaps HAM operators, for example).

Regards,

Tom