"You park your Honda generator inside the cage, and can still fire it up after the SHTF. Of course, you'd better have a real good supply of gas or diesel on hand... "

Why? What is anyone else going to be using the gas for?

Sue

Well, if you have an older vehicle, one with points instead of electronic ignition, and carbed instead of fuel injected, and you keep a spare alternator in the faraday cage, you might be able to use the car after the fact. That is stretching it a bit, though.

Of course, getting the gas when all the pumps are shot and the power grid is offline is problematic anyways. In any case, nothing that would still be usable would still be used the same. If I had a functioning motor vehicle and only had one tank of gas to use in it, you bet I would save it as long as possible.

I think the point is the technology we've come to rely so heavily on over the past hundred years is still pretty fragile stuff, and any number of events can throw us back to the good ole days. Unlikely as they may be, I think it is prudent to maintain at least a basic fall back plan for such events. Oil lamps, candles, wood/hog fuel stoves, manual pumps, these are all relatively inexpensive and useful items to have around. Hey, if it works up at elk camp, then why not at home? To me, it is cheap insurance.

You know, them rural folks that seem to just get by year after year without really joining the rat race, yet being able to make do with a lot of their own efforts are probably more likely to remain relatively unphased by the average catastrophic event. I know a few families who put up 300 or more quarts of locally produced food stocks using a pressure canner or two and a wood stove out back. At any given time, they have at least 6 months of food put up for the entire family, a working well, a fuel source, and a fair distance from any real strategic location. They also have a vast array of manual and powered tools, and since they usually take care of fixing things themselves most of the time, field expedience is often a daily activity.

I been thinking real hard about taking my bankroll and heading out to the boonies myself. The only drawback is that as I get older, I suspect my reliance of modern medical services will grow, and being 100 miles from the nearest hospital might be a critical factor.

I guess that is the way it goes.

Not me.

I would rather stay fully integrated in the grid (Electric, Financial, Social, etc.) where I can afford to buy & store away the tools (guns/ammo, canning equipment, etc.) that would allow me to transition to the late 1800's only if/when that becomes necessary.

I do undertand that the rat race can consume you and that is why some yearn for the old days. But for me the answer is properly managing the rat race instead of running from it.

And the medical that you mention is a good enough reason to stay in the high tech world...

Even though an EMP blast might knock us out for a while - if you can survive it we will definitely come out the other side. The knowledge of how technology works will not be lost & we humans are a very creative bunch when our backs are against the wall.

Boy, this has been an *interesting* read. Want some really good (and definitative) information on EMP, its effects and how to protect electronic equipment? Check out this series of articles from the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) published in "QST" August - November 1986.

url= http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/88615.pdf

As for cars, the UK TV show "Top Gear" had a VW Golf (rented at the local airport) zapped 600K volts (with a driver in it!) to examine what would happen if your car was struck by lightning. The result - it cranked right up and everything worked. (The EMP effects of lightning are discussed in the above article.)

In short, fairly everyday practices and relatively inexpensive over-the-counter hardware can protect your electronics gear from all but the most intense EMP events.


Jim Jr

In the UK a WV is more than likely to be a diesel and may have less strict pollution controls so the engine may start and run with no computer controls so without knowing all the deatils of that test its not a good example. Gas engine vehicles in the US have a lot more complexity than other parts of the world. For example my truck has an engine computer under the hood which communicates with the body computer and computer in the instrument cluster via a network like data bus. Then there is a small computer in the ABS and SBA systems as well as one in each door and another for the air bag which all communicate on the data bus. And mine isn't enev a high end model which have more bus connected compueters under the seats and in the entertainment systems and tracton control, etc. OTPH modern electronics are in some ways more robust. In the 60's when the military conducted EMP experiments electronics were simple. A single transistor was simply a transistor, now that package looking like a transistor has a transistor with over voltage, over current, over temperature, etc protection and the circuits they are built from have several protection devices also. Then the vehicle systems are made a little better protected as well. My truck has a small fuse for nearly every electrical item and then those are fed from branch circuits with larger slower acting fuses and then finally a main fusible link. So there are three levels of fuse protection for any device and I of course being prepared have enough spares to replace them all if needed.

Don't understand that assumption! What other parts of the world are you referring to. Japan (Nissan, Toyota, Honda) or Europe (BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Volvo, Citroen, Saab, Peugeot, Fiat). The vehicles in the US may be bigger so that their larger occupants can fit in them but they are not anymore sophisticated than else where in the world. The engine development work even for US vehicle manufacturers such as Ford and GM relies on European and Japanese engineering expertise in their subsidiary companies in these global regions. Anybody reading this would think that the computer was invented in the US and that US vehicles are the only ones to have engine management systems.

Unless things have changed since the last time I tried to ship a car to the US from Germany, in which I had to make several changes to glass, electrical system, and other safty related items before I could meed guidelines for US cars. it turned out to be more than the car was worth. there is a big difference in cars in the US from those in Europe, and as far as the larger people here in the US unless thats changed in the last few years..... I'll be nice.

Re raydarkhorse

A strange thing has happened here in the UK in the last 5-10 years, there are more and more cars on the road, the people here are getting fatter and fatter and now in the last few years the cars are getting bigger and bigger to accommodate the ever increasing size of the people causing even less room for all the every increasing numbers of cars on the road. Where will it end? Oh for the days when the roads were clear of cars when I cycled around Perthshire in the Autumn sun taking in the aroma of the Strawberry fields. Now it is usually some fat guys exhaust pipe of their newly acquired 'Chelsea Tractor'.

Yes, companies like Nissan, Honda, Toyota that are sold in the US have to have a lot of computer/electronic equipment to meet the emissions and safety standards. Im some countries you can still buy carburated or vehicles without air bags. The US it will soon be mandatory to have SBA and in take fuel filters as well as more strict Diesel emissions onctrols making the vehicles even more complex.

You can see the experiment here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6XGKZxYxA

Does the EMP weapon based here have the ability to take out targeted Electrical Power Grids all over the world?