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 I thought they had mostly been replaced by similar looking tubes with LED lights inside.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.


Edited by paulr (09/04/21 06:38 AM)