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FEMA getting into broadcasting (apparently)

I

ironbear

Here's an interesting and troubling report about FEMA and Dept. of Homeland Security rush efforts to place EMP-shielded Nautel 5 kW AM transmitter buildings...unconnected to towers...at various broadcast sites around the country.

They're apparently concerned about a repeat of a solar flare induced event which could take down significant portions of infrastructure. There was a massive solar flare in 1859 which fried the telecommunications facilities of its time...telegraph systems...causing fires and other damage.

Nautel hasn't made any tube transmitters yet, which of course, are MORE EMP resistant.

http://www.rbr.com/radio/homeland-security-installing-transmitters-nationwide.html
 
This is a little frightening. Solar Flares or Atomic Bombs?
Now might be a good time to invest in power generators (and a fuel supply) for our homes.
I'm certainly not a Doomsday Prophet but this tends to scare the hell out of me.
What does the Government know that is not being shared with us?
 
I guess the real question too is if we need to make a faraday cage for the generator too. Does equipment that's not energized have to be in the faraday shield to survive? Lots and lots of questions here...
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
I guess the real question too is if we need to make a faraday cage for the generator too. Does equipment that's not energized have to be in the faraday shield to survive? Lots and lots of questions here...
Click to expand...

The followup question is what about the listener's radio? Wouldn't they be damaged too by any incoming EMP?
 
A friend who designs silicon says some devices will be toast in such an event however many semiconductors should survive if they are not powered at the time. I would imagine anything connected to an antenna would have it's front end damaged at the least.

Most of the satellites have rad-hardened devices to withstand radiation so I would also expect many of them to survive.

There are probably plenty of folks that would love to pop a nuclear tipped Scud over one of the East Coast cities at high altitude if they have the chance. It could get very messy if that happens. The little guy with platform shoes who lives next to Iraq comes to mind first.

The new generation of youth would all go through withdrawal if they loose their technology. A lot of business for shrinks.

I still have my trusty R-390A and tube ham equipment...just have to find enough power to run the stuff. I hope the powers to be have enough surveillance to keep us safe. I was a Boy Scout so the appropriate phase applies.
 
frankberry said:
I'm certainly not a Doomsday Prophet but this tends to scare the hell out of me.
What does the Government know that is not being shared with us?
Click to expand...

They (the government) may know some things that would scare us, but the more likely scenario is what goes on in business around the world. If you are a bank and your computer going down not only makes your bank look bad, but it ties up all your customers for the duration, you call some people together and invite them to brainstorm and think of every possible way that computer could be caused to fail. And some of the scenarios that come up are things you don't want to talk out loud about!

I ran a big, big, big computer for a car dealer. When he bought it, he did something that fits the ego-pattern of a lot of car dealers from the l960s to 1980s era: He build what looked like a show-case fishbowl radio studio up in the showroom. He wanted EVERYBODY to know he was the biggest, baddest dealer in town and he had the biggest, baddest computer in town! I routinely had people peck on my door, open it up and ask: Can I come in? They would introduce themselves as a data processing person, ask some questions about our computer set-up (It was a hybrid that puzzled even the sharpest people in the industry.) Then after they determined I was open to conversation, they would get around to what really had them puzzled: Who is the dumb-ass who decided to put this thing out here for everyone to see? One angry guy with a molotov-cocktail in a small bottle could wipe this thing out in a matter of minutes.

So we are left with a question: does the government know about some rogue meteor bouncing around in space near us that is saturated with some kind of rays that we don't know how to shield against, or are they just contemplating what two suicide bombers with RPG launcher could do to a downtown facility where virtually every internet connection and phone connection runs through one little funnel?

There are companies that don't want to share with you what city their main computer is in, much less tell you what building it is in.
 
Given the FEMA record of success so far, I wouldn't worry a lot about them doing much of anything successfully. Except maybe lobbying for money the FCC would do a better job with.

The was a time, though, when I was In (I retired in the late 80s) that if you came up and said "EMP" I was supposed to report you to the spoooks, "He said IT!"

Remember, when the guy defected with the Russian jet to Japan, they were surprised to find the avionics had tubes in. They will survive EMP, and the Russians didn't have our expertise at hardening stuff.
 
Greetings, I'm new to this board and late to this party.

I had a brief discussion with some FEMA fellas as they were ~cough-cough~ helping Greensburg Kansas rebuild and we failed to become friends when I told them that they would be totally useless after an EMP laydown because they would be carrying their own water and digging their own latrines along with everyone else.
 
Either someone at FEMA actually has a clue for once (understands that we really need a post-EMP way to broadcast emergencies) or they know something is possibly coming up and are getting ready for it. Either way, I'm very glad to see them getting stuff out at the PEP stations. We are simply too dependent on our electronic toys that could break real fast with one good EMP bump.
 
Once the natural gas stops flowing, you have to start figuring out a way to make a decorative fireplace the real thing.....

Much the same electronics. If we all get zapped back to 1900, there be plenty of work to get us back up.
Wireless-delivered movies on your palm device will be the least of your worries.
In a truly bad solar flare event, many long line power wires will likely burn out regardless of being open or in-circuit.

I suspect that about 40% of stuff will survive. Pretty much shotgun odds, depending on where inside a building,
angle of incidence, case construction, connected to wiring or not and many more factors of pure chance.

Generators FEMA supplies for these are probably 3600 rpm making "about 60 hz" and likely to have
not much in the way of solid state devices.
I'd sure think they'd want the gen and xmtr inside a faraday cage, since it can only help,
and the scale for possible level of energy we may encounter is,
umm, rather open ended....
 
Bill DeFelice said:
OKCRadioGuy said:
I guess the real question too is if we need to make a faraday cage for the generator too. Does equipment that's not energized have to be in the faraday shield to survive? Lots and lots of questions here...
Click to expand...

The followup question is what about the listener's radio? Wouldn't they be damaged too by any incoming EMP?
Click to expand...

All you need is some quartz, a cat-whisker, a loopstick, some wire and a dynamic headphone........
 
TomZ said:
All you need is some quartz, a cat-whisker, a loopstick, some wire and a dynamic headphone........
Click to expand...

Shhhhh. You're going to give away my new eBay "Survival Radio" business.
 
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