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What you need to know about EMP weapons

aardvark.co.nz

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Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#41

Post by Workaccount2 »

tomxor wrote: post #15

> wrap that in aluminium foil, making sure that the ends are folded over and pressed down hard to provide good inter-layer contact I've tried this many times, it's impossible to prevent gaps without welding it shut. Obviously I wasn't testing with an EMP or nuke, but trying to block 2.4GHz WiFi... But that is well within the E1 range the author states. I think the problem with folding is it's too uniform, it's still…

Let me tell you something from first hand field experience with faraday cages...

They attenuate signals, they do not block them. The common verbiage is to say "faraday cages block EM radiation", so people naturally assume that it blocks EM radiation. But I learned the hard way while doing compliance testing that no, they do not block EM radiation, they just weaken it (and it's highly frequency dependent on top of that.)

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#42

Post by jamespo »

Gud wrote: post #34
yabones wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, what I've learned from films like "Threads" and "The Day After" is that you very much want to die in the first 20ms of a nuclear war. Don't dig a hole to hide in, put your lawn chair on the roof and hope you're close enough to ground zero to get a peaceful and dignified end.

Fuck that. I’m going to resist dying. I am going to keep those around me, alive.

for a few minutes / hours I guess

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#43

Post by closewith »

bell-cot wrote: post #37
closewith wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Following a devastating recent strike on the air leg of the Russian nuclear triad by Ukranian drones, some analysts believe the use of nuclear weapons by Russian has become much less unlikely.

I'd replace "some analysts" with "some alarmists". And unless you're in the hyped-up headline business, the attack fell well short of "devastating". Plus, the pre-attack triad cred of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95 bombers was pretty limited. Notice that they are turboprops. From the 1950's. Hitting hard against the western nuclear powers (US/UK/France) ain't in their talent set.

> And unless you're in the hyped-up headline business, the attack fell well short of "devastating".

All other comparable attacks have been considered devastating in history.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#44

Post by andybp85 »

BryanLegend wrote: post #36
amit9gupta wrote: post #33

The book Nuclear War: A Scenario Hardcover by Annie Jacobsen should be essential reading for all politicians and those profiteering from the Military Industrial Complex https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-War-Scenario-Annie-Jacobsen/d...

I read it and it's completely biased to a worst imaginable scenario. Not likely to reflect any real world at all.

The book says that that's exactly what it's supposed to be, to inspire people to talk about it. But (also from the book) the war games the USA runs around these situations always end in a massive nuclear exchange. Sure, some specific situations, like the Devil's Scenario, I would imagine might not reflect a real war, but the case the book is making is that reality is far more likely to be closer to the worst case than to a "best case" (whatever that means here).

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#45

Post by andybp85 »

yabones wrote: post #28
lenerdenator wrote: post #4

1) Don't worry about it. If one goes off over a NATO country or Russia/China, you'll soon have much, much bigger problems to worry about. 2) There is no 2)

Yeah, what I've learned from films like "Threads" and "The Day After" is that you very much want to die in the first 20ms of a nuclear war. Don't dig a hole to hide in, put your lawn chair on the roof and hope you're close enough to ground zero to get a peaceful and dignified end.

yup. "the survivors are the lucky ones" is fantasy.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#46

Post by Workaccount2 »

muzani wrote: post #11
lenerdenator wrote: post #4

1) Don't worry about it. If one goes off over a NATO country or Russia/China, you'll soon have much, much bigger problems to worry about. 2) There is no 2)

But I don't live in any of those places. Also I believe India-Pakistan has nukes too. And possibly Israel-Iran. North Korea too? The peace loving nations are well within fallout range. My biggest fear with MAD is that it only takes a single irrational leader, and we've seen so many of them lately.

I don't want to jinx it, but even the most deranged leaders don't want to rule over a nuclear wasteland. And they especially don't want to go down in their history as the worst person who ruined everything for their party.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#47

Post by [deleted] »

imglorp wrote: post #39
tronicjester wrote: post #8

To prevent nuclear war YouTube has now blocked videos related to faraday cages.

Not surprised, but is there a source? I guess hiding your electronics from The Man is subversive. And front page today, Jeff discovered that media servers are also verboten: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/self-hosting-your-own... Is someone keeping a list of all the various censorship triggers on YT?

[deleted]

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#48

Post by hollerith »

diggan wrote: post #9
meepmorp wrote: post #3

> As we sit, possible poised on the verge of a nuclear conflict in the Northern Hemisphere, maybe it's time to look at the damaging effects of the electromagnetic pulse that follows a nuclear detonation. I guess that's what I get for not doomscrolling like I used to, but I wasn't aware we were on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Can someone explain that for me?

Maybe that's based on the "Doomsday Clock" ( https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ ) being as close to "human extinction" as it has ever been? Not sure, but sounds plausible the author is reading into that.

Doomsday clock is not an estimate of nuclear risk these days, but includes risks like climate change.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#49

Post by cjbgkagh »

GJim wrote: post #35
SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The end of the cold war didn't also end the threat of nuclear war. Russia has threatened to use nukes if aid to Ukraine continues, while they haven't followed through on those threats it's not impossible that they will eventually.

> it's not impossible that they will eventually. Please stop believing the ridiculous Russian propaganda. Using even a single tactical nuclear weapon would be game-over for Putin's Russia.

At some point it could be game over for Putin’s Russia anyway, then what is to stop them.

Israel has a policy of the Samson option that they define as destroying the enemy but they also imply they will destroy the world. Russia has made similar statements.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#50

Post by spacebanana7 »

lenerdenator wrote: post #4

1) Don't worry about it. If one goes off over a NATO country or Russia/China, you'll soon have much, much bigger problems to worry about. 2) There is no 2)

Not all uses of nuclear weapons necessarily escalate to the doomsday maximum exchange scenarios. There are many interesting points of equilibrium in between.

For example - if far right extremists took over Turkey and attacked Russia, then Russia nuked a Turkish airbase, what would the US/UK/France do? It's not actually that obvious.

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