Would any of these Faraday Cages work against an EMP?

You may hide underground with all the technology in the world.

There is no escaping.

How deep underground before the EMP no longer reaches you?

Also, I found a site here that says how to build a faraday cage that can survive an EMP with a space blanket, cardboard box, etc:
[link to www.unitedstatesaction.com]

Any possible way of testing this?

I read here that you can store/protect electronics in a metal trash can with the item well wrapped and protected from touching the can iself. That's what I'm using. No help for an electronic you are using when an EMP hits unless the room or electronic itself is hardened.

I've got my own, which I built myself.

It's basically a large parakeet cage, which is also wired to the mains electricity to generate an extra magnetic field for extra protection.

I've got smaller canary cages to use for the kids as well.

Yes the man made EMP. How ever what about the sun. If there was a large CME and wave from the sun. Would that wipe our minds? After all, we are a bio electric machine.

there's a Faraday Cage in every home... the microwave oven.


1- Get the largest used or broken microwave oven you can find.

2- CUT THE POWER CORD OFF. (you're trying to store and protect sensitive devices, hard drives, and data, not fry them.

3- Store that which needs shielding from emp inside.

4- Close door.

Build your own, from copper sheet. The problem, as I have said numerous times, is not the EMP (well it will put many in the stone age and anarchy will rule), the biggest problem is going to be the radiation influx. Plumbers lead lining will come in handy... or look for an abandoned mine... galena preferably...

i put my cell phone in the mic and called it....it rang. i dont think id trust a microwave.

Ok guys, I've been researching ths for awhile. The worst part about an emp is that there isn't a soli way to protect yourself.

If you do use a faraday cage it has to COMPLETELY sorround the object inside and have a ground to bleed off the electricity.

There are three types of energy released< E1, E2, and E3 for short. They temperarily alter and overpower the earth' magnetic field, an opposite field wouldn't help because thee waves don't follow conventional electronic physics in the way that they spread equally around the blast point as compared to lightning which only travels in one general direction.

Tin foil and space blankets are fine but won't protect high tech or senitive intraments. For these use copper. A microwave wuld work but might still not be good enough.

As always be aware of poeple trying to scam you. Only buy cages from repudable dealers.

HINT: Look for survivalist's websites.
James Wesley Rawles is an excellent source for anything and everything. He is a very credible and relistic person.

First of all how would your phone work with cell towers down. and i don't think you will get warning on when it will happen.

Why even try? If all electrical appliances are fried, what would you plug in to?

Microwaves should work, but you have to pull out all of the prongs except for the ground. Then make sure that it's plugged into an outlet that is also grounded. I forgot where I've read this but I'd like to half confirm what was mentioned above.

Some thoughts:

(1) The larger the cage, the larger its induced surface currents will be on the outside and consequently the larger the surface currents will be on the inside. To compensate, you'll need more dB of shielding effectiveness.

(2) Grounding will help if you are really grounded to ground. (If you live in a fifth floor apartment, ground is a long way away, and that grounding wire just becomes part of your antenna and makes the situation worse.

(3) As for testing, ask the manufacturers how they test.

(4) Microwave ovens are sort of good a shielding microwaves, and they may shield the lower EMP frequencies somewhat.

What’s in YOUR Faraday Cage? A Common Sense Guide to Preparing for an EMP
[link to www.shtfplan.com]

Faraday Cage: Garbage Can, Really?

I bought a military box off of ebay for about $40. It has foam inside it too. I also use static free electronic bags that can also be bought on Ebay for $10 for a set.

Rough calculation - about 10-15 feet.

Last Edited by Life and Love on 11/27/2012 03:56 PM

I believe most people would want to endure that they have functional radios and of course two-way radio communication devices along with solar chargers and rechargeable batteries.

What will you do with any of it? Really, no internet, TV or cell phones, so what you can look at the stuff.

ok, first off, your faraday cage has to be grounded. second, pretty much any form of metallic screening (like aluminum window screen) will do. thirdly, you want multiple, isolated from each other, plies, each of which is separately grounded. small very effective cages can be made by nesting metal boxes inside each other, each grounded, with layers of insulative material between them (kind of like one of those "russian dolls") . a room could very effectively be caged with screening and battens of plywood used as stand-offs between layers. if you dont ground the cage, it just becomes a resonator for the frequency it absorbs. the more plies the better (it scatters em lines of force). chicken wire, window screening, or any other fine mesh of metal will do, even expanded metal lath.

One day the infrastructure will be restored. There will mostly likely only be local outages anyway. If nothing else, I would want to preserve the computational tools needed to help rebuild, like calculators, computers, etc.

These are all very good comments.

I would add to one of them: be sure you are grounding to GROUND and not the electrical system or even plumbing, else, you have just connected a very large antenna to your box. Like I wrote earlier, if you are living in a 5th floor apartment, "ground" is 50 feet away and that 50' antenna, even if a dedicated wire not connected to anything else, will pick up more EM energy than the box itself.

You can use mylar bags (the type that's used to store food), or even aluminum screen mesh (the type that goes over windows). To test it, just toss in a cell phone and you should loose complete reception.

What ever you do don't do this...
[link to farm1.static.flickr.com]

What shields energy at cell phone frequencies will not be as effective with EMP frequencies. Suggest you try using an AM radio vs. a cell phone to estimate effectiveness.

(And even that doesn't tell you the shielding effectiveness value.)

Are metal trailer houses and rv? If not, why not?

The large size will pick up more energy than small stuff, so the shielding effectiveness has to be a lot higher to overcome that.

You have two things working against you:

(1) Lots of openings (windows, door seams, ventilation, etc.)
(2) Lots of penetrations (plumbing, wiring)

STUPID QUESTION !

THINK moran, even IF you protect them, WHO, what are you going to communicate with ???

99.9% of the morans out there don't even know what a Faraday Cage IS, or what it is FOR !

Building one to protect your generator WOULD be a WISE move, however.

Eagle .... Bed time !

The result of a World Wide EMP would be food and water shortages and thus the destruction of the cities due to rioting.
Most of those who have the knowledge to rebuild will also die.
So suppose you found enough skilled people to rebuild with;
Unless you can first rebuild a support infrastructure of food , water, medicine and military, to support the "rebuilders" nothing could be accomplished.
Then you could begin to rebuild the parts to rebuild other machines, so that maybe in a hundred years, you might finally get done.

It isn't possible to have a "world wide EMP." The physics don't support it. Even a high altitude nuclear event will cover only a very small portion of the globe.

I'm not trying to convince you that you're wrong; you're entitled to your own opinion.

Most people skulls are denser than lead... they should be fine.

I had a huge one. Hubby tore it down trying to repair it. uggh.