is there such a way as to EMP proof your current vehicle? such as putting a rubber case around the main computer and ignition module? or is the only way way to have a vehicle (useable)after an EMP attack to have one old enough that it has the standard coil and condenser setup..

ON a gas engine you want magneto's to EMP resistant your ignition, ofcourse diesel doesnt care about EMP unless it is one of the late model electronic controlled systems.

A associate that is a EE hardend the missle silos for ICBM s' against EMP but they did not expect it to withstand a near hit by a EMP it would still fry the electronics.

Some say putting a extra alternator in a old microwave (shielding) will do the job for the charging system.

Rubber doesn't shield. To shield electronics you have to use a "Faraday cage". For an example of one, see "Enemy of the State". Basically it is a grounded wire mesh or box that completely surrounds whatever electronics you are trying to protect. You can have NO wires or antennae out of the box or it will pick up the pulse and channel the signal into your electronics. The whole reason EMPs are so worrisom is that the ElectroMagnetic Pulse theoretically will be picked up by ANY wire (all wires will act like antennae) and funneled through the more delecate ones. It is theoretically possible that more robust wiring will survive but any small wires (transistors, light bulbs, LEDs, computer chips, etc.) will probably overload and burn out. The two ways to shield are either to design the electronics to make it cancel itself out (hardening. My father worked on it over at Naval Ordinance back in the 60s), or put a faraday cage around it to channel the pulse to ground before it gets to your devices.

The part of electronics that is sensitive to EMP is the diode.

The diode is a germanium-silicon layer that is very sensitive. EMPs usually cause them to short.

Whether is is caused directly to the diode or the entire circuit acting like a collector feeding the pulse to the diode I am not sure.

Inductors (coils) and capacitors or not as sensitive and might stand up better.

I know little else on this. What I do know is that the B-52, intended to be a nuke dropper, used a lot of tubes instead of diodes.

Don't throw out grampa's old radio yet.

Ill keep my eye out for one...perhaps the old style windup field phones arent a bad idea for auxillery communications?

Some type of Faraday Cage is the easiest and most cost effective way to shield a vehicle/electronic equipment from EMP/EMB weapons,(rubber materials alone, simply will not shield from these, some form of an electrically conductive sheeting or mesh-screen enclosure that is grounded/guarded, must be used).
Another way to aid in shielding from EMB/EMP are to set fuses or breakers in line before the vital equipment inside the acting Faraday Cage/Sheilding. When an EMB/EMP is experienced, the fuse/breaker on the wiring that would act as an EMP/EMB antenna is blown but protects against further conduction of the damaging EMP/EMB waves to the vital equipment.
Then the fuses are all that need to be replaced or breakers reset to resume electronic function(s). This helps to eliminate the manditory grounding of the Faraday Cage/Sheilding systems and allows the Faraday Cage/Sheilded electronics to be moble while still able to function after an EMP/EMB wave attack.

Here are some sites that explain EMP/EMB Weapons/Effects, and Faraday Cages including some mfging tips, along with relating article links...
( http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-92/fm792_11.htm ), EMP/EMB effects.
( http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/hpm.htm ), EMB/EMP Weapons & effects.
( http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/emp_and_faraday_cages.htm ), Faraday Cages/Sheildings and relating article links.

Theoretical paper on EMP/EMB and 'Directed Energy Weapons' shielding using counter energy domes and globes... interesting read for further EMP/EMB Guard research...
( http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/teshield.txt ), controversal.
( http://www.borderlands.com/newstuff/research/teslahaa.htm ), more on Tesla and HARRP.
( http://robocat.users.btopenworld.com/updates2.htm ), the U.S. Military in HARRP research... Alaska... Hummm... ?

IMHO, although a smaller, but still effective Tesla-Shield-System sample could be constructed to guard a motor vehicle, the power that would be required is purely a challenge, then there's the point of "Timing the Guard-Shield to an EMP/EMB Weapon Wave" within a moble-shield system... 'sigh'.
I think it would simply be easier to totally coat every micro-inch of your vehicle's electronics with an 'insulating-coating' and then coat again with a metal-ized material/coating along with adding 'attena-insulating-devices' to physically guard against most EMP/EMB Wave Weapons,(or to EMP/EMB-Harden the electronics of your motor vehicle).

Believe as you will.

IHTH

Michael

I have my truck grounded on the front chasis to a 8 foot copper ground rod when the truck is stationary in the drive. I also have a ground chain on the rear bumper. I have had people stop me on the street just to let me know that I am dragging a chain. This is what fuel trucks use to use to prevent static discharge. I have heard that this will protect or reduce emp. Is this correct?

Mad Coyotee

thanks for the info i will look further into this cage.. Ridge Runner i have been looking for those old T-12(i think thats their name) phones for years but havent had any luck really..i used to use them in the field and a small switchboard too since we were a Div. level unit..biggest problem i see with them is the commo wire..something like a simple pin stuck in the wire will short it all out and it will be hell trying to find it tracing the wire.

The item you are thinking ofis called a TA/312 uses D cell batteries and had a hand ringer on them also....the TA-1 was just a hand squeeze powered...here's a link to a place that sells them. Hope this helps!

http://www.murphyjunk.bizland.com/id4.html

Simply having a ground wire on your vehicle when it's not in use isn't enough, by itself, to protect your vehicle's electronics from frying in an EMP/EMB wave.
These EMP/EMB waves are likened to being struck by lightening because they carry much the same power in a type of massive static charge. But only using part of the spectrum of energy that is actually found in lightening, by using only some of the frequencies found in lightening, the amount of energy that's required to create it is less, this also allows these wave weapons to be better controled or directed.
In other words; a wave weapon can still be used to over-power your vehicle's electronic systems even though it's very well grounded, causing many vital components to melt-down. The ground on the vehicle simply allows the wave's charge to continue to the earth where it disappates... after doing it's intended damage to the vehicle.
By adding a Farayday Cage sys to the vital electronics of your vehicle will guard from the wave's damage and the secondary protection of grounding the vehicle will reduce any remenant static charge from doing any damage. By 'closing the circuit' in the wave path and by-passing the vital electronics of your vehicle, so to speak.

Using a piece of chain as a ground is better than nothing, but any chain may only work as well as each and every link properly connects with the other in the chain. Then there's the actual contact with the earth, itself, this connection may only be intermittent, at best,(especially if the vehicle is not stationary at the time-duration of the wave attack).
If a 'ground wire' is going to be used to drag from a moving vehicle, I would recommend using somthing like a 3/16",(or slightly bigger), steel cable that's bolted to the chassis and more consistantly contacts the earth as it drags from the vehicle. Even then, this system is not an ideal ground, but it is better than chain, and nothing. IMHO

IHTH

Michael

--------

P.S. On those TA/312 phones, every micro-inch of the phone's line and each phone unit themselves need to be Faraday Cage guarded or the EMP/EMB wave will find/use any unguarded wiring as an antenna to fry any electronic circuitry in the phone's system. One way to guard those types of phones would be to use a double or triple insulated wire that travels to a breaker system as it passes into the phone's protective faraday cage unit(s).
I still tend to think that using a good short-wave radio system that is well/completely guarded by the faraday cage system and antenna fuses/breaker system is more workable and maybe easier/cheaper to setup and maintain. Again, IMHO.

A sure-fire way to test any electronic system for EMP/EMB waves would be to similate a 'Lightening Strike' on the electronic units/systems. Testing in this way is a 'distructive test', but by doing some kind of test,(even something 'non-distructive'), prior to an actual attack gives you the chance to replace, rebuild, refine the guard of your electronic systems, before you have no other choices due to some wave attack.

IHTH

the faraday cage is like the cage Gene Hackman had all his computer equiptment in, in the movie enemy of the state ,right?

Yah. He called it the Jar and it was made of grounded chicken wire. The concept was the same, but the reason he built his was different. His was to prevent signals from his equipment from getting out and being picked up.

Faraday cages block EVERYTHING, which is why you need an external antenna for your radio...which compromises your protection from the cage...unless you have a surge protector somewhere in line with your antenna (it would have to be inside the cage as any wire outside the cage would stll pick up the pulse.

A multi stage "lightning arrestor" similar to what they use in the electrical power industry might do the trick, but it would have to be ALOT more sensitive to stop a pulse.