Flashahollics have DEAD LIGHTduring emergency?

Here's annother POSSIBILITY we flashaholics could suffer:

A EMI flash! Isn't that what they call it? Say someone delivers a Electromagnetic Pulse to a metro area near you. Say by airliner or missle. Any solid state junction LEDs, transistors, microprocessors, computers are at a HUGE risk.

Imagine a EP wiping out a metro power grid (solid state controlled), cell phones, cell towers, radio stations, subways, and even most cars on the street.

Our non working light emitting diode flashlights might have us crying our eyes out. Not only are they vulnerable solid state junctions that happen to emit light, all non direct drive flashlights have transistorized control circuits inside (boost and buck converters). I think the converters are safer if in a metal shielded flashlight body.

I guess you might be lucky if your handheld lamp just happened to be sitting bezel down when an overhead EP detonated (shielding itself from the blast).

Imagine if the Northwest (NY, NJ) was hit by not only annother blackout, but an EP. What a mess, no more laptops, transportation, or communications of any sort. With billions of dollars of equipment needing to be replaced at every utility, cell phone company, city agency, buisness of all sorts, I don't think recovery would be to quick.

Would be funny to see only filament based flashlights working, along with 60's era automobiles (points and plugs only--no solid state crap).

OK, I'll quit my Tom Clancy novel now.
Just something to think about,
Brian

Electromagnetic Pulse Links:

http://www.physics.northwestern.edu/classes/2001Fall/Phyx135-2/19/emp.htm

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/ebomb.html

I have plenty of sticks that I can wrap with cloth, dip in oil and light with a match. Touch that, EMP!

So...my incandescent lights, tube (valves for our British friends) stereo and guitar amp should still work...as long as I can supply them with 120 VAC.

WOW, a whole new market for tactical flashlights!!!
Hardened Electronics for flashlights!!!
who wants to make em?
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif

Store your lights in a tin container like a cookie can or bread box; that way only your EDC will be affected, not to mention yourself if something like that happens.

Maybe just keep it in a tin can with a conductive screen in front--like a faraday shield.

Brian

Hey, I was just thinking....
My Costco Luxeons ARE NOT PROTECTED! They are in an aluminum shell--not protective of magnetic fields.

Maybe it needs to be IRON!

Lets all think of some Tactical Iron names!!!!!

TAC-Ion Illuminator
I-Ron Beam
I-Ron-im-in-ator

How I-Ronic!

See Yas Later,
Brian
or is it Bi-Ron

[ QUOTE ]
carnal said:
Lets all think of some Tactical Iron names!!!!!

TAC-Ion Illuminator
I-Ron Beam
I-Ron-im-in-ator

How I-Ronic!

See Yas Later,
Brian
or is it Bi-Ron

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh man...ROTFL!!

Kind of glad I live somewhere where such a thing is a statistical impossibility!

My lights stay head down for the most part anyhow...

During an event that produces an EM Pulse I really doubt that non-working flashlights will be amongst my biggest worries! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Having said that, along with being a flashaholic, I am also a lantern-addict and have about 45 perfectly functional kerosene and pressure lanterns in my collection along with several gallons of oil in the storage shed.

Still I had to laugh about a firesafe I bought a while ago that mentioned on it's sales tag that it was safe against theft, fire temps to -blah blah blah- and (in tiny little letters at the bottom) would protect contents against EMP. The sales depts of these companies must really work overtime to find any "feature" that allows them to one-up the competition.

We had a power failure during the holiday yesterday. I noticed that although I've given my family very nice lights, they used them only long enough to find the candles. Then the lights went away and everybody played by candlelight. If the flashlights didn't work, they would have stumbled around a bit more, but all in all there would have been light after a while. .

Aren't all flashlights subject to EMP effects? I recall the pulse will knock out anything that can induce a current.

If I recall correctly, the phone systems and power systems are the most probable victims. They have millions of miles of wire to act as generator windings and will pass the voltage spikes into the equipment attached to them. Well, they would if we did not already have lighting arresters on all of that equipment.

My understanding is that biggest problem with the EMP will be the untold number of burned out circuit breakers and fuses. The phone company, for instance, does not have enough spare heat coils (lighting arresters/fuses) to replace more than a few thousand per town.

The EM pulse looses power with distance, so unless it happens real close, your wireless devices will still work. Well, unless they were plugged in to charge at the time.

I'm guessing that at least one of my lights will still work after an EMP event. If not, I have oil and candles. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Daniel

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't an EMP only affect electronics if it is powered on?

If an EMP does go off, I would be paranoid that a nuclear explosion happened. I may be too busy kissing my butt goodbye to worry about flashlights.

[ QUOTE ]
recon225 said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't an EMP only affect electronics if it is powered on?...

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.

One old EMP strategy from the 70s was to triple-wrap portable radios in tin foil before putting them away for an emergency. Ideally, If your rig got zapped by an EMP, you could just unwrap another radio to replace it. Hopefully you'd have more radios wrapped up than there were pulses. I don't see why this lore wouldn't roughly translate to flashlights. Pass the tin foil.

I'm fuzzier on this bit: wouldn't lights without batteries present less of antenna for EMP? I can't get my head around that.

Certainly if the heads were removed from the bodies (and wrapped, of course) they would present much less of an antenna for EMP than a fully assembled light.

Anyone have any ideas on finding/buying/improvising EMP shielded boxes/lockers? The hard core container freak in me would be very surprised if there weren't cheap boxes out there right now, in different sizes, that would do the job even though they were designed for something else.

Any ideas?

[ QUOTE ]
gadget_lover said:
Aren't all flashlights subject to EMP effects? I recall the pulse will knock out anything that can induce a current.

If I recall correctly, the phone systems and power systems are the most probable victims. They have millions of miles of wire to act as generator windings and will pass the voltage spikes into the equipment attached to them. Well, they would if we did not already have lighting arresters on all of that equipment.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're right. Non-solid state devices may be affected if they are connected to anything that acts like a big enough antenna. An incan plugged into a charger would certainly smoke.

"...US scientists first noticed EMP back in 1962, when they had a little nuclear experiment called "Starfish Prime". They exploded a one-and-a-half megaton nuclear weapon 400 km above Johnston Island in the Pacific. 1500 km away in Hawaii, there was massive electronic destruction as three hundred street lights blew up, burglar alarms triggered off, power lines fused and TV sets exploded. The scientists immediately started trying to work out what was going on. It took them a year to understand it..."

Full article:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s380431.htm

[ QUOTE ]


Anyone have any ideas on finding/buying/improvising EMP shielded boxes/lockers? The hard core container freak in me would be very surprised if there weren't cheap boxes out there right now, in different sizes, that would do the job even though they were designed for something else.
Any ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

Do some research on a "Faraday Cage" sometimes called a "Faraday Shield". They are pretty easy to build. Some people like to claim that a box wrapped in tinfoil will suffice but a more effective faraday cage would have a foil wrapped box sitting inside another foil wrapped box (the cardboard will act as an insulator between the two layers).

If you want to test your faraday cage, put your cellphone inside and try to call it from another phone.

I found an interesting guide to hardening at
http://jya.com/emp03.htm

I was suprised to see that the "Starfish Prime" experiment was detonated 250 miles above the ocean. I didn't think we had missles capable of moving a 1.5 mega ton bomb that high in 1962. Of course, I have no idea how big a 1962 era bomb was. Things were "secret" back then.

Daniel

Sorry to make a fun thing out of a serious situation, but the EMP reminds me of how the sentinels partially got their asses kicked in the Matrix:revolutions.

The problem with a faraday cage and EMP is that it's only good for storage. You can't use anything, or charge anything or do anything that causes a wire or a hole from the outside to get in. Any hole in the shielding, or any cable wire or anything that comes through the shield will cause the emp to get in and destroy whats inside.

So, by building yourself a faraday box in the basement and it's properly built and properly grounded you can preserve a radio. I don't think a non-grounded wrapped in tin foil radio will survive, but a properly grounded metal box will. But you can't say, ground your aluminum siding and preserve everything in your house.

I did read somewhere that a guy made a pretty effective faraday cage out of one of those tin lawnmower storage buildings. Now I can't find the article. Don't know if it really worked or not.

I can Evilbay selling off tin foil with holes punched thru'..."Moldable Lightweight Faraday Cages"
Hmmmmmm... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif