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Starfish Prime

phoneguy

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Are you ready for the Starfish prime effect that might come from North Korea, China are maybe soon from Iran?
Do you have a digital keypad gun safe or any survival type gear or any sensitive information stored in a electronic format?
 

thebigsd

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Quarryville, PA
Are you ready for the Starfish prime effect that might come from North Korea, China are maybe soon from Iran?
Do you have a digital keypad gun safe or any survival type gear or any sensitive information stored in a electronic format?

I am unfamiliar with the Starfish prime effect. I could google it, but since you started the thread, please explain. :)
 

jeeper1

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Sep 29, 2008
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USA
Starfish prime effect=high altitude nuclear explosion caused electromagnetic pulse.
 

BigSlick

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Jul 7, 2011
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In a house
Here is a brief summary of Starfish Prime:

Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States on July 9, 1962.
Launched by a rocket containing a thermonuclear warhead the explosion took place 250 miles above a point 19 miles southwest of Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. It produced a yield equivalent to 1.4 megatons of TNT.
Starfish Prime caused an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which was far larger than expected, so much larger that it drove much of the instrumentation off scale, causing great difficulty in getting accurate measurements. The Starfish Prime electromagnetic pulse also caused electrical damage in Hawaii, about 898 miles away from the detonation point, knocking out about 300 streetlights, setting off numerous burglar alarms and damaging a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands.
 

DamonK

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Mar 23, 2012
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Ft. Lewis, WA
Starfish prime effect=high altitude nuclear explosion caused electromagnetic pulse.

I realize that this is horrible of me... but it brings to mind another flavor of starfish...

Anyways! Nope, most of my preps are intentionally low tech. The rest will be stored in a very large Faraday cage...

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
 

phoneguy

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DamonK you got it. Very good

I realize that this is horrible of me... but it brings to mind another flavor of starfish...

Anyways! Nope, most of my preps are intentionally low tech. The rest will be stored in a very large Faraday cage...

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

I think this is the scare that will bring the USA down, and not to many of us really know of the damage it will do.
 

DamonK

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Mar 23, 2012
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Ft. Lewis, WA
I think this is the scare that will bring the USA down, and not to many of us really know of the damage it will do.

I believe so as well. Be it a deliberate attack or a major solar flare(that has happened before) it is very likely.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
 

thebigsd

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Mar 23, 2010
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Quarryville, PA
Starfish prime effect=high altitude nuclear explosion caused electromagnetic pulse.

Thank you. I do belief that this kind of event is possible and we are poorly enabled to defend against it. The effects would be devastating, especially to those addicted to their smartphone. :D
 

Aknazer

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Mar 6, 2011
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Location
California
Could someone put a faraday cage over the front keypad of a gun safe and have gun safe protect the back side, or would the whole gun safe need to be inside of a faraday cage?
 

DamonK

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Mar 23, 2012
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Location
Ft. Lewis, WA
Could someone put a faraday cage over the front keypad of a gun safe and have gun safe protect the back side, or would the whole gun safe need to be inside of a faraday cage?

I believe that it would need to be inside. Otherwise you risk a short somewhere. This is why I prefer lock and key, or combo.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
 

sharkey

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Aug 8, 2010
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Arizona
Not nessicarily. And his concern was with the electronic lock that would deffinately not be shielded.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

I think it would be but I have no way to prove it.

Even if I'm wrong the lock is too small to be affected.
 

sharkey

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
1,064
Location
Arizona
Notice smart phones still function after our hypothetical EMP.

The worst damage comes from E3. Anything plugged into the grid is probably going down.

E1 may destroy small electronics (especially with antennae), Faraday cages are useless to prevent this, but since the lock lacks an antenna it "should" be safe.

I'm reading http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32544.pdf now.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/11/emp-attacks-what-the-us-must-do-now
In the event of an EMP attack, the U.S. cellular phone network will suffer some direct damage, but may ultimately fail due to excessive call volume overloading the infrastructure. This phenomenon occurred after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It highlighted the success of the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) that gives priority resources to emergency responders and government officials. This arrangement gives priority cellular service to officials and provides the administrative framework to operate the communications infrastructure in crisis. However, nationwide network stress coupled with significant infrastructure damage may result in the failure of this system. The immense proliferation of smartphones in the last few years may cause unprecedented stress for the system, as users try to download data in addition to making calls. There is a workable infrastructure in place in order to provide priority calling in the event of disaster—but the changing nature of wireless communication may cause unprecedented difficulty.

ETA

All these reports are contradicting.

I think the likelihood of a nuclear EMP (HEMP) is slim. A high power microwave (HPM) attack is possible but has limited range (but more directed and effective). I would only be concerned if you live in the heart of a major city. I would be more concerned about spontaneous quantum teleportation causing my safe to appear on the other side of the planet.
 
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