10:04 – I should be able to finish up the taxes today and be able to get back to kit stuff.
We finished watching Heartland S9 last night, along with the first two episodes of Murdoch Mysteries S9. Heartland S10 starts shooting in about a month. Given that Amy, the character, announced her pregnancy in the final episode of Heartland S9, I have a pretty good idea of what S10 will be about. Like a lot of other fans, I suspect that Amber, the actress, is either pregnant or considering it.
I get a lot of email from preppers who are in various stages of preparing. One recent email was from a guy who’s very well equipped with LTS staples. He has literally tons of rice, flour, pasta, oats, beans, and so on in #10 cans, Mylar bags, and pails. Enough to feed him, his family, and several close friends for more than two years, at least from a nutritional viewpoint. What he lacks, in common with a lot of preppers, are the herbs, spices, bouillon, etc. needed to make all that bulk food appealing. His total of that stuff is half a dozen large Costco jars of assorted herbs and spices. That won’t go very far toward making tons of bulk staples worth eating. I suggested that his next Costco run should be devoted exclusively to stocking up on things that will add flavor to all those LTS staples. The PET jars that Costco supplies herbs and spices in are decent LTS containers. No matter what the best-by dates say, those PET jars will keep their contents usable for years. If he wants to improve on that, he can repackage them in foil-laminate Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.
He also mentioned that his next project was building Faraday cages to store backups of his sensitive small electronics like radios, battery chargers, solar panels, charge controllers, and inverters. I suggested that until he has time to build formal Faraday cages, he simply keep those items in their original cardboard boxes and wrap them completely in heavy-duty aluminum foil, which makes a pretty decent Faraday cage. Also, putting those foil-wrapped boxes in plastic bags and then adding a second layer of aluminum foil improves the level of protection significantly.
If he’s worried about it, why not just use a metal storage cabinet? A bit of sand paper, a couple screws, some bits of wire, and all the pieces can be bonded together electrically. Most every cabinet design I’ve seen has L or Z shaped folded edges for strength around the doors, that also coincidentally will stop most EMI, per the design guides published by .gov. For extra protection foil tape could be used to cover any openings in the steel, and cover the joints. Used steel cabinets are widely and cheaply available at used office supply stores.
For that matter, good fast and cheap is a dead microwave oven. Even a live oven is cheap at the thrift stores. They are DESIGNED to keep RF inside.
And if you don’t need everyday access (hence my focus on containers with doors) the canonical solution is metal trash cans with tight fitting lids.
I guess my point is……………. why wait? Why delay? Why put off til later?
nick
For security and emi, a Knaak or JobBox, with added EMI gasket around the lid bolted to the floor is better than most “safes” on the market.
3M
EMI Shielding Tape, 2 x 54 ft, Silver
https://www.grainger.com/product/3M-EMI-Shielding-Tape-2GCA7?s_pp=false&picUrl=//static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/2GCA7_AW99?$smthumb$
http://www.mcmaster.com/#emi-rfi-shielding-gaskets/=11y7o5r
http://www.mcmaster.com/#emi-rfi-shielding-tape/=11y7oh7
Cookie tins with a tight fitting lid and foil tape would work too. As long as the electronics are not touching the tin box….
nick
Dr. Bob, your taxes next year, after the house sale (hopefully) and purchase, are going to suck. I’d recommend a tax pro for that year.
Dr. Bob, your taxes next year, after the house sale (hopefully) and purchase, are going to suck.
There is no tax on a house sale if the net is below $500k for a married couple. There are complications if you ever took the home office deduction.
I am looking for any authoritative source on EMP / CME protection. I’ve studied this a bit and realize that these have VERY different effects. An EMP is a very fast (pico second) and very short EM pulse that will generate inductive currents in conductive substances. A CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) will build relatively slowly (seconds) and has a long (hours or more) duration. A strong CME, like another Carrington Event, may well cause massive fires as the huge currents induced in in-home and building wiring cause it to overheat and burn. Unlike an EMP, a CME will trip circuit breakers but that may not be much protection because the wiring protected by the breaker will also receive induced current. The shorter the wire the smaller the current. That’s about all I know for sure. I suspect that protecting devices from an EMP is much easier than most people think because of the short duration. The “grid” is at risk in either case. In 1989 a CME caused the grid in Quebec to collapse and in 2001 a CME overloaded the electric grid in Auckland causing loss of a primary transformer. AND the Earths magnetic field, our protective shield, has been decreasing rapidly over the last few decades as it appears to head toward full reversal. What I have not seen is an authoritative test of the various home made faraday cages such as microwave ovens, steel garbage cans, Mylar coated bags, etc.
First thing I thought of when I read this is how Christianity has bee co-opted so thoroughly by the Chicoms to the point they created their own “official” Church there.
http://www.freemansperspective.com/military-evangelical-complex/
I have built faraday cages for secure computing facilities. Requires complete enclosure with copper mesh shielding that IS FULLY GROUNDED. Grounding is important. And since the shielding has to be pierced by power, data cables and water and gas pipes, these have to be shielded and magnetically filtered too. In one case the cost of building a fully shielded data center almost drove the company into receivership.
@harold,
There have been several discussions here, but there have also been issues with the site search function, so I don’t know offhand if you can find them easily.
They had links to the ARRL definitive article on the subject from a ham radio standpoint.
I’ve posted links to DOD EMP hardening documents (a bit out of date, but still applicable).
As for tests, I’ve posted links to mag articles about EMP testing of aircraft, which had good general info. Unfortunately, it looks like the test facility was decommed.
For most testing you can safely test for radio wave penetration very easily. Just put your phone in the enclosure, call it, and see if it rings. If it does, RF in the microwave and below is getting in. You can test lower freqs with walkie talkies.
You can buy off the shelf enclosures with test certs etc. aimed at the .gov and .mil market but ‘they ain’t cheap!’ Looking at the ads and spec sheets will give you a good idea of what ‘good design’ looks like.
The EEVBlog has a bunch of experimental stuff for messing around, and Dave is one of my favorite net personalities- https://www.google.com/search?q=eevblog+emp&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
CME and induced currents, well if the wires are long, you’re gonna have a problem. Spark gaps might help, they’re used on a macro level to protect antennas (which are after all just wires intended to have current induced in them) and on a micro level to protect circuit boards from ESD.
Which is all a long way to say that I don’t know of anyone who has done high power tests and posted results.
nick
@harold,
Sorry, I see from your next comment that I’m ‘teaching your gramma to suck eggs’…
I’ve seen the construction details and WIP on a SCIF, so I know what you have to do for the room, and have some (very limited) direct experience with secure data and comms (TEMPEST) requirements.
For everyone else, generally speaking, the power ends up going thru isolation transformers, the data ends up going thru glass, the plumbing penetrates as little as possible and is grounded like crazy, entries are built as waveguides, wherever it’s possible there is no direct metal path… which is all spelled out in the DOD docs I can’t seem to find at the moment.
nick
This may seem like a real dumb question but what will we do with all our Faraday-saved gizmos and gadgets when we pull them out of their enclosures to use them and there is no juice anywhere? If it’s a big enough event to shut the Grid down, what’s the point? How many peeps out there will have done this with their electronics so there is someone else to communicate with, possibly thousands of miles away somewhere? I’d figure that with a massive Grid-down event, we’ll have a LOT more to worry about than whether our radios or battery chargers will work. Got solar? Great. How long will all the various parts last? Got a way to make more?
My point being that if the Grid goes down and stays down for a long while, we’re gonna be back, at best, to circa 1900, and we’ll also be looking at huge mass die-off, esp. in the cities and ‘burbs with accompanying widespread unrest, disorder and violence. A roving band of revenants hears your radio squawking and they’ll be knocking on your door. Ditto when they spot the solar panels. Or smell cooking or see lights.
But maybe I’m missing something.
@ofd,
good point, and one we discussed before.
I was looking for the posts I did on EMP resources and haven’t found them, but I did find this day with a WHOLE bunch of commentary.
http://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2015/11/15/sunday-15-november-2015/
To quote myself:
“If we really have an event that destroys everything but tube tech, just eating and killing will probably take up most of your energy. The recovery will have to be pretty far along before we have enough economic slack (excess capacity) to start making tubes, and recreating that level of tech.”
I still can’t find the comment where I posted links. Damn.
nick
Now Bloomberg has an article on the persecution of the AGW deniers. I knew when they persecuted the tobacco companies that this tactic would be used elsewhere.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-04-08/subpoenaed-into-silence-on-global-warming
And another.
http://m.providencejournal.com/opinion/20160411/michael-e-kraft-climate-change-deniers-deserve-punishment
Yup, next up ObolaLynch suing the pants off anybody who “denies” Global Ejaculation. What a joke.
“What a joke.”
It won’t be funny if and when they actually start prosecuting climate “deniers,” and using that word to conflate them with Holocaust “deniers.” And it won’t be a laughing matter for them, either, if and when the political seesaw tilts the other way and the rightwing State factions turn on THEM with the same tactics. What is funny is how none of them ever seem to see this or read any history.
Another overcast day with rain showers here, kinda dismal. Running various errands, doing various boring chores, etc. Reworking the various go-bags preparatory to our little jaunt down to Maffachufetts next week. Wanna try out the Yaesu FT60 and the CountyComm portable AM/FM/shortwave/SSB down there.
Not as long a drive as what Mr. Lynn just did; only about five hours, with the only significant traffic down on that end, and ol’ OFD knows how to negotiate it, from being a stealth Masshole driver (operating w/VT plates, they all think I’m just a northern hillbilly rube to be taken advantage of, and boy, are they sadly mistaken!)
Arthur Bradley’s _Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms_ is a pretty decent summary, and he has done testing that none of us has the equipment to do. His book is available free under Kindle Unlimited, and can be purchased for $13 in print or $7 for Kindle.
I haven’t looked at since soon after it was published, but IIRC he did detailed testing of dB down at various frequencies from HF to GHz range (it’s a lot easier to stop lower frequencies) and with various types of enclosures, including foil-laminate bags, garbage cans, foil-wrapped boxes, ammo cans, microwave ovens, etc. He also tested various types of conductive tapes, and IIRC concluded that the off brands were distinctly inferior to 3M-branded products. OTOH, 3M conductive tape is extremely expensive, and you don’t really need it to do a decent job.
Incidentally, speaking of aluminum foil, keep in mind that a lot of it is conductive on both sides, but some is plastic-coated and non-conductive on the dull side. You want conductive-to-conductive contact, which is easily done along seams by folding the tape over on itself so that shiny contacts shiny. You can then tape the seam with ordinary masking or packing tape.
@OFD
I want my critical small electronic items to be protected, including my radio receivers and transceivers, HTs, solar charge controllers and inverters, PV panels, radiation survey meters, battery chargers, etc. etc. I’ll also stick in a bunch of inexpensive LED flashlights and headlamps. I suspect an EMP wouldn’t kill LED flashlights, but they’re cheap enough that it’s worth having some in protected storage.
OK, I understand that we want our electronics protected but what good will it be after a massive Grid breakdown/crash that lasts for weeks or months and utterly tanks the economy, government, societal law and order, etc? I maintain that our protected Bow-Fungs and battery chargers will be way down our list of priorities as we deal with violent anarchy and mass die-offs.
What Selco describes of the former Yugoslavia twenty-plus years ago will be kicked up a few notches here, and having working electronics would be great, but even better are enough ammo and emergency med gear and antibiotics and other meds. Although I’d certainly prioritize working lights and FLASHLIGHTS over the radios.
I wish people would stop saying/writing “anarchy” when what they mean is “chaos”. They are not synonyms.
Ok, here’s the ARRL article
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiSseai34nMAhXC1CYKHZ7ZCLEQFggwMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwilliamesimpson.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F04%2FQST-Electromagnetic_Pulse_and_the_Radio_Amateur.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFYZ8eSzYuYkjXGuW1DgfQ0xBAMrw&sig2=fK07WwHsEKm_f7Tuw_SWPQ&bvm=bv.119028448,d.eWE
boy is that link ugly.
and the page with lightning pro as well
http://www.arrl.org/lightning-protection
nick
I’ve
spentwasted more time than I’d like playing google games. I KNOW I posted links to the DOD doc as well as the ARRL, but I’m stuffed if I can find them.I did re-read some comments both here and at TheSurvivalistBlog.net regarding radio and emp that reminded me of a few things.
And I’ve written a ton of words on ham radio and getting your license from a prepper standpoint! Holy cow, a ton of words.
BTW, it may be this post that pushes the number of comments here over 99999. We’re pretty close! That would be a nice milestone considering the generally high signal to noise ratio vs some other sites….
nick
Here’s the milstd for grounding bonding and shielding for comms
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwibltew44nMAhXELyYKHcMgAXwQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbdg.org%2Fccb%2FFEDMIL%2Fstd188_124b.pdf&usg=AFQjCNGOq3l_W_-xsiw4F8mUAVafpxWsIA&sig2=BcC06hOC17euqlatfVc44A
Do this and you’ll be covered for most levels of electronic disruption.
nick
Yeah, Google used to index comments as well as blog entries. I’m not sure why they stopped doing that, but the Search Everything plugin for WP works pretty well for me.
Great data and information Nick and OFD. I have some very old education on antenna design which is exactly what we are talking about. Except in this case we want minimum DB, least possible coupling of the signal to the wire. Haven’t been to the linked sites yet but am wondering what difference, if any, there is between a single pulse from an EMP and regular RF. The whole thing about putting a cell in an enclosure to test effectiveness is, to me, ridiculous. I could design an enclosure impervious to one freq. but leaks like a sieve at others. What freq would a CME exhibit? There have been recent powerful events so someone knows from real world experience. Current in a wire is determined by change over time. This is why I imagine a CME would be less damaging to microelectronics than an EMP. I better go read those links to see if I am off-base or get my questions answered.
“They are not synonyms.”
My bad, and I should know betta, being a recovering English major. Anarchy is a system of government, lol, wait, strike that. Anarchy is what RBT and others have said it is. Chaos is what would ensue during and after a mass Grid breakdown and stay-down. “Anarchy” just popped out thanks to my wicked fast typing fingers and simultaneous brain freeze. Happens all too often.
As for Faraday and other stuff, I’ll do a bit of it with some gizmos here but in general I’d expect and prepare for simply being knocked back 100-150 years, at best. And relearning what my great-grandparents had to deal with and being like them, only being like them when they were old, and thus not really cut out for cain’t see-to-cain’t see hard physical labor seven days a week. If we get bounced back further than a century or so, all bets are off; because then we’ll be looking at CHAOS writ large.
OFD sucked at math in general (and apparently sucks at English, too) but did pretty well in ARITHMETIC:
“If we stop this right now the Federal Government would immediately and permanently run a roughly $400 billion a year surplus. In other words your purchasing power would go up rather than down every year and the federal debt would slowly be retired at a rate of about a trillion dollars every three years.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231295
Think we’ll take the last para’s recommendations seriously and get off our butts?
@harold,
There are resources that show freq curves etc, I just can’t find the one I’m familiar with. I know you could design a leaky enclosure, but a sealed metal box isn’t gonna be real leaky is it? Granted that the mesh size in the microwave window is also gonna let some stuff past, it’s gonna stop everything bigger than what it was designed for, no? (use different radios to confirm it blocks different parts of the spectrum)
I think the risk of CME is 100% but I don’t know the timeframe. Same for asteroid impact, and a megaquake. The risk of it happening in my timeframe is very small, so I don’t spend much effort or resources on it. Plus, it’s one of those things where the potential destruction is so massive, that it’s hard to prep for without a huge non-recoverable investment, ie. returning to 1890’s lifestyle. I look at the risk vs reward and I say ‘meh.’ In other words, it’s not something I worry about. The only prep I’ve personally taken for it is to have a few radios off line, in a metal cabinet, and to not have electronic locks on my safe. Basic survival is going to be top priority, and very difficult, and having electronics after the event is, in my mind, very high luxury. (Having enough rope, tarps, seeds, antibiotics, and hand tools is WAY more important than a working radio, when there is no power and it ain’t coming back for months– or ever.)
And while I am a big proponent of testing your preps, this is the sort of thing we have to rely on .gov and .mil to test. Other than basic and limited low power, your average Jane can’t test for this.
Also, it’s my recollection that CME won’t have much effect on stuff that isn’t connected to long conductors, due to the shape of the pulse, etc. EMP, especially from a weapon specifically designed to destroy electronics is a different story.
I use the microwave and phone example for a couple of reasons. A long time ago, a well respected amateur hit upon it as a cheap and plentiful way to demonstrate that cell phones were transmitting all the time. We know that now, but back in the day this was something that some people needed to see with their own eyes. It stuck in my head to use it as an RF proof enclosure because almost everyone has one.
So don’t fall into the trap of overthinking, or putting off a good/ok solution for some future best solution.
If it worries you, a local metal fabricator will be able to make a copper box liner for whatever security container fits your budget and decor. Ground that, seal it up, and move on to the next item on the list!
nick
FWIW, connected devices are another issue, but all I can think to address those, is follow the guidelines from the relevant agencies.
Afternoon Comedy Department:
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/ar15_whinylittlebitch.jpg
Oh boy!
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/984094_1151729098179862_6896461959703300094_n.jpg
You don’t need to ground a Faraday cage.
“You don’t need to ground a Faraday cage.”
True to protect from EMP, according to folks who know, from what I recall, but the DOD says ground the stuff coming in, ground the building, ground it all.
What can it hurt?
nick
More from the Afternoon Comedy Department:
http://bearingarms.com/vermont-gun-rights-group-clinton-youre-liar/
What is astonishing is that she still automatically gets the majority of “super-delegates” and continues marching right on to the WH, lying constantly and either no one cares or they support her lies and evil intentions anyway.
The other amazing thing is that the vast majority of libturds and Dems here in Vermont support Comrade Bernie but the two senators and the rep and the gov all support Field Marshal Rodham. Goes to show…something….oh yeah…the Dem half of the Party does the same stuff the Stupid Half does with regard to constituent and voter wishes, i.e., utterly disregards them.
The upshot may well be that instead of Comrade Bernie versus Gaulieter Trump it will end up being Field Marshal Rodham versus somebody like Cruz, Rubio or Kasich and she’ll win in a huge landslide, which is, of course, the intent all along.
They’re private organizations, under no obligation to take primaries or caucuses as anything more than suggestions. Each is free to run anyone in the general election. Political parties are not government organizations.
“Political parties are not government organizations.”
Coulda fooled me. Maybe not technically or legally, per se, but they sure do look and walk and quack like ducks.
In any case, Rodham/Clinton looks like a clear shot to the WH and all talk of indictments or medical issues are as dust in the wind. That gives us the yardstick measure of nine months to get our chit together on as many fronts as possible, just a yardstick, that’s all. But one I’ll use to try to cover the main priorities, i.e., survive a long, tough winter, with no power, and goblins on the loose, while the State continues to ratchet down its control over us all and we face a possible collapse of the financial house of cards.
Sounds reasonable to me. I actually expect some violence in the wake of the general election. No matter who wins, a lot of people will be screaming about fraud, so some violence is likely. The questions are how severe and how widespread.
It also wouldn’t surprise me to see some polling places closed because of bomb threats or actual bombings,or that some of those might be false-flag ops.
I expect a mix of false-flag and genuine incidents throughout this next nine months to a year, plus hopefully identifying recent past FF incidents for what they were.
And you’re right; no matter who “wins,” there will be a firestorm of protest and likely some of it violent; we have basically two halves of the country again now; those who are outraged by the events of the past half-century and what our government and media and academia have been doing to us, and the other half, which is outraged by our outrage. It is increasingly evident that we can’t even talk to each other anymore; I actually begin to believe that their brain wiring/chemistry is warped beyond any hope of repair. They do not appear to have much of a connection with reality and their acquaintance with genuine history, let alone the sciences, is a joke. As many of us on this board have been discovering, arguing with them is a waste of our time and breath and bandwidth; they won’t listen, and they’ll actually act like little kids having a tantrum and covering their ears and screaming.
I suspect a lot of cooler heads will prevail in most places, but we’re looking at the definite possibility of another civil war here. If so, it will make the last one, combined with the events in the former Yugoslavia, look like the teddy bear picnic at the beach.
CME risk is actually much higher than previously imagined. In 1989 a CME shut down part of the Canadian grid. One in 2001 took out a primary transformer in New Zealand. And an X Class flare in 2012 could have created a Carrington class event except it missed the earth. We have been very lucky so far.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/23jul_superstorm/
For y’all who live in the great Tarheel State:
http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2016/04/north-carolina-delegate-disaster.html
Yup, voting and democracy and ballots are working out real well for the folks in Colorado and NC, and that’s REPUBS doing that. Can’t blame this one on the evil Dems.
They all just do whatever they want and guess what? FUCK YOU.
Meanwhile, in “old Europe…..”
https://kakistocracyblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/invasion-turning-proper/
Good thing that sorta stuff can’t happen here….
Surefire conversation starter at your next media hoopla:
http://www.shelflifeclothing.com/shirtpages/caucasians.html
From the Hate and Raycizm Department:
http://www.shelflifeclothing.com/shirtpages/caucasians.html
A surefire conversation starter at your next media hoopla.
http://www.shelflifeclothing.com/shirtpages/caucasians.html
Surefire conversation starter at your next media hoopla.
Surefire conversation starter at your next media hoopla:
http://www.shelflifeclothing.com/shirtpages/caucasians.html
OK, this is the second or third time I’ve tried to post comments and/or links here in the past several days and I get weird error messages like this one:
“Your edited comment was marked as spam. If this is in error, please contact the admin. – Close”
But stuff like “FUCK YOU” is evidently OK. WTF? Over.
OFD: if I recall correctly, the spam flag has more to do with hyperlinks than anything. So, the more links you post the more likely you are to be flagged as spam. No worries. RBT moderates the posts flagged as spam and can authorize them. So, if you get that message about spam, then don’t worry. Your post will probably appear as soon as RBT has time to look at it and okay it.
“But stuff like “FUCK YOU” is evidently OK. WTF? Over.”
Is New Zealand pr0n okay too? 🙂
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-13/mulesed-merino-sheep/7324432
This is a family-friendly blog. But in order to be family-friendly, there needs to be a family, and the most common way to get a family is through fucking.
“Your post will probably appear as soon as RBT has time to look at it and okay it.”
And it DID! FOUR times! But time has passed and I can’t delete three of them. I was figuring it was because I used the word “Caucasians” a huge gaffe and macro-aggression, of course.