Making a Faraday cage on the cheap....

Saw this on another thread and wow, GREAT idea!

I am SO doing this...

reply to post by Gazrok


If you need a small one you can also use an old microwave
I have a couple of gizmos in my old one (Just in case)
Just make sure you cut the power cord off completely.

A metal trash can is cheap and will work wonderfully.

I've been looking into this as well. This model looks durable and able to store a lot, and not that expensive.

I made a Faraday cage yesterday by covering a storage box in aluminum foil, that should work in the case of an EMP. Also, unplugging and removing power sources (like batteries or charged capacitors, possibly) from electronics somewhat protects them from EMP as well.

However, if the electronics are connected to a cord, cable or antenna of 30 feet or more, that will still fry them - watch out, if the cord, cable or antenna is coiled, it will actually reduce the required length dramatically.

reply to post by boymonkey74


Or Oven, or Dishwasher, Washer, Dryer, etc....but the nice thing about this, is I can always keep and put things away here, so if unexpected (as an EMP event is likely to be), they'll be protected as is.

That's the real beauty of this idea. I could have this in my garage where I store tools anyhow, and be protected while still being convenient to grab and access.

reply to post by boymonkey74


Watch out about the microwave, because the metal grating in the glass door is only meant to keep out microwave radiation - the EMP will still get through this. I was reading about this yesterday.

reply to post by Gazrok


Wish I had space to make one Mind you I just thought of a place in my bedroom...now to get the stuff...when I get payed.

Just a thought how about a big hole in the ground? I know it sounds funny but would that also work?

Here's one with a garbage can

saltnprepper.com...

Originally posted by boymonkey74
reply to post by Gazrok

 

If you need a small one you can also use an old microwave

I have a couple of gizmos in my old one (Just in case)

Just make sure you cut the power cord off completely.

edit on 10-4-2013 by boymonkey74 because: (no reason given)

Don't cut the cord off... remove the two prongs and leave the ground, and plug the ground into the wall. This way there is a continuous circuit for the EMP to travel.

I just love the idea that you can build this in a garage, not have it look weird, but just as a tool storage cabinet, and yet still prep.

I like the idea of prepping without LOOKING like you are prepping. Not to mention, these items could always be in there, always protected, and yet still just as easy to use as they would be in any other way. (and I think he overpaid for the cabinet too, by the way). I'll bet you could do the same with a cheap metal cabinet and some of that tape...for a lot less. I do like his radio test.

Im not sure how well this would work but I definitely like the idea behind it. Personally I think an EMP SHTF scenario is extremely likely especially now with all this buzz with the koreans. This article is a pretty good summary of the "Red Dawn" scenario, and no kids I'm not talking about the 2012 release but the one from 1984.

For me its really scary because I can totally see there being a false flag emp strike on us by our own government by detonating a bomb high altitude and blaming the koreans. Personally I think the koreans are too dam poor and hungry right now to pull it off themselves regardless of the hype in the media lately.

I mean if it does happen theres no way that I would want to be int he US thats for sure. As for protection i found a review about emp survival here thats worth checking out. Personally though i think the best way to deal with it is to anticipate and leave the country. Like it or not the US is probably very high on the list to attack.

just remember, the Faraday cage can only protect your device from ONE EMP effect, and the microwave oven is just about as good for that as anything else. All cheap Faraday cages will let in radiation, the cut-off frequency is determined by the holes in the aperture, and even if no holes are in it, will give just a certain amount of isolation, depending on what kind of material your Faraday cage is made of. A cheap DIY-type Faraday cage will attenuate the RF component of the signal by about 30dB or 1000x, provided no holes larger than 1/4 wavelength of the highest frequency of the RF component exist in the box. A properly installed Faraday cage can give you up to 140dB (100000000000000x) isolation, but I doubt many of us can afford that, and that requires very special techniques.

In other words, an EMP blast, causing a field strength equivalent to that of the Starfish Prime detonation extrapolated to a high-latitude detonation of around 30kV/m, would be around 3V/m in your home-built Faraday cage, making your equipment fairly safe.

However, that is only part of the equation. Depending on which kind of EMP weapon is used, and your distance from the detonation point, there can be other effects too, for which a Faraday cage is not going to help. These effects includes the magnetic component, and for nuclear type EMP weapons, Compton and Gamma radiation.

But it all boils down to one or 2 things. If the whole country is without any communications, what good will your well-protected cell-phone be? I can understand the case of an HF radio, but any sort of equipment based upon a infrastructure is going to be useless without the infrastructure.

The RF component of an EMP is well-understood, by proxy, to any competent engineer who has had to design equipment for EMC requirements, and that is what I based my quick calculations upon, but there are a number of different EMP-type devices that are theoretically possible, and have been described in unclassified documents, but a lot of the data from the nuclear-EMP tests are classified, so one can just extrapolate on it, and derive parameters from military standards for EMP-proof electronic equipment from those standards. Once, an engineer, who was one one of those who generated the MIL standard on HIRF and other EMI standards (read EMP), when equipment I designed and had to be tested to those standards, asked me afterwards, "So what, your equipment passed, but you will be dead, because the limits for these HIRF standards (again read EMP-levels) are lethal to any human being."

Yes, contemplating that, I could see he was correct. Here I was, testing equipment I designed, at a field strength of 120kV/m, if that radiation falls on you, and you are 1,5m tall, there will be a difference of 180kV between your toes and your head, that is 180 000V, and your mains voltage in America is 110V!!! (OK, I know I simplify things a LOT now, but that is the effect). Compared to that, the field strength in your average microwave oven, is only around 1500V/m, and here we were testing almost to 100x that level.

Darn it! I can't watch Youtube videos anymore, but I really would have liked to learn how I can do this!

My uncle who served in Vietnam told me I could take my radio and double wrap it in foil and store it away. I've done this for a couple of years now. I'm thinking of getting a metal trashcan, but it has to be all metal.

Originally posted by armed2teeth
Im not sure how well this would work but I definitely like the idea behind it. Personally I think an EMP SHTF scenario is extremely likely especially now with all this buzz with the koreans. This article is a pretty good summary of the "Red Dawn" scenario, and no kids I'm not talking about the 2012 release but the one from 1984.

For me its really scary because I can totally see there being a false flag emp strike on us by our own government by detonating a bomb high altitude and blaming the koreans. Personally I think the koreans are too dam poor and hungry right now to pull it off themselves regardless of the hype in the media lately.

I mean if it does happen theres no way that I would want to be int he US thats for sure. As for protection i found a review about emp survival here thats worth checking out. Personally though i think the best way to deal with it is to anticipate and leave the country. Like it or not the US is probably very high on the list to attack.

Of course they would, if all else fails, EMP the citizens and knock out our communications and power, then in roll the tanks and police state. I've been thinking a lot lately about this and starting to prepare by having solar powered items, such as a battery charger and protecting some things.

One of my concerns regarding an EMP is my mom. She has a pace maker for her heart. I have not said a word to her about it as it would scare her, but I'm worried an EMP would do something to her device.

reply to post by Taissa


Like I wrote in my reply to the thread above, yes, but what good is if the electronics survive, and you don't? remember, the sole EMP tests that we have unclassified data on, were tested at low latitudes. If you extrapolate that to higher latitudes, you get field strengths that are stronger than the field inside your average microwave oven....

reply to post by Hellhound604

But it all boils down to one or 2 things. If the whole country is without any communications, what good will your well-protected cell-phone be? I can understand the case of an HF radio, but any sort of equipment based upon a infrastructure is going to be useless without the infrastructure.

I'd have similar things in my cabinet as the guy in the video... Cordless power tools, gas power tools, radios, flashlights, batteries etc. Sure, may not last forever, but at least some limited use.

Actually, it generates another good idea though....the generator/s.

I'm planning to rig up a backup generator (and eventually, have a second one). I am planning to do a concrete slab base, but it might not be a bad idea to have an additional metal base and simply have a removable faraday cage as a cover, for when it isn't in use. Kind of a dual purpose of weatherproofing and EMP protection.

reply to post by Gazrok


your car (if you have one) is a very good faraday cage

reply to post by Gazrok


Just remember that any wire connected to your generator will act as an antenna, not only blowing up the equipment connected to the generator, but the generator as well. Just make sure everything is disconnected when you anticipate and EMP event.
I am not sure how you will protect yourself in the event of an EMP event, though.... guess a suit made from tinfoil will work, but that would only shield you from the HIRF, and still won't shield you from the gamma or x-rays that can be generated by a nuclear EMP event in high latitudes.