How To Protect A Portable Radio From EMP
Protecting a portable shortwave radio from an EMP (electro-magnetic-pulse) is easy and a very wise survival preparedness action to take.
Keep a portable shortwave radio for use during a disaster
A portable shortwave radio may be the best and first item to keep and save from the effects of an EMP disaster. EMP or not, having a portable shortwave radio is highly recommended in any survival kit or preparedness plan. Listening to radio reports and collecting information after a disaster is a very important intelligence-gathering task which will ultimately help you decide how to react and what to do next. Discovering the cause and extent of a disaster will reveal the probabilities of recovery time and will likely change your plan of action to some degree.
I own and recommend owning either the Grundig G4000A
A key advantage is, having a shortwave portable radio will allow you to hear communications from far away, presumably far enough away from an area that was not affected by the disaster. Hearing reports of the incident from other parts of the world will provide invaluable insight to the situation.
Basic description of an EMP
An EMP from a nuclear atmospheric detonation is an instantaneous jolt of tens of thousands of volts per square meter that is generated from the interaction between the explosion and the Earth’s magnetic field. The pulse occurs instantly over an area that is within line-of-sight of the nuclear detonation. An EMP detonation at an altitude of 50 miles would affect an area with a diameter of 1,400 miles while a detonation altitude of 200 miles would affect a 2,900 mile diameter area.
An EMP is a terrorist’s dream weapon because a single device could wipe out most all things electronic and effectively send the region back to the 1800′s in a flash. An EMP weapon is a very real threat in today’s increasingly unstable world, one where some nations and terrorist organizations openly wish and threaten destruction upon the West.
How to protect a portable shortwave radio from EMP
Wrap the radio with aluminum foil being sure not to leave any open exposed areas.
Wrap the now wrapped radio in a non-conductive material (or place in a zip lock bag).
Wrap the wrapped radio, which is now covered in an non-conductive material, in aluminum foil again.
That’s it. Double wrapped with aluminum foil with a non-conductive layer in between. Do not ground the package.
Where to store an EMP proof portable shortwave radio
The best place to store your portable shortwave radio, now that it is EMP proof, is in your vehicle. The reason being that if a disaster event happens while you are at home, you can simply go out to your vehicle and get the radio. More importantly, if you are away from home when a disaster strikes, you will have the radio with you in your vehicle. This is a perfect addition to add to your vehicle 72-hour survival kit.
Video how to protect a portable radio from an EMP
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Hi I think the sun is more likely to take out the grid and electronics than a bomb right now, but good idea about the radio. If you have nothing else in your car kit, have plenty of bandaging material and tape. I always need more of those. Also, iodine or chloraprep. You are right about the volcanic activity. I have been watching this for over a year now. Large earthquakes and volcanism appears to be triggered by geomagnetic storms or some other component of solar flares. Also, find a group of people you can trust that have various skills. You will need others to survive.
Great idea about EMP-proofing a radio. Just a thought though, I’m not sure I would store it in our car, because we cross the international border every week, and it would certainly attract undue attention when inspected by border guards and/or their x-ray equipment. Here they x-ray the entire car, with the occupants outside of it.
I don’t fully understand the use of having a SW radio after a huge solar storm or EMP-type attack. Wouldn’t either event also knock out the sources of SW broadcasts? And I’ve noticed that now, in 2011, when I try to listen to my SW radio, I get essentially no stations anywhere. Would countries start broadcasting after an emergency event? A cursory reading reveals much less use of SW frequencies than there used to be.
Also, would this method work for protecting a set of walkie talkies, and would they work after an EMP event?
You bring up all good points. True regarding less SW use today. A solar super-storm or EMP won’t get the whole world. SW is broadcast from all over the world, so, it would be a source of information – even from afar. The protection method could protect other vital equipment as well. Walkie-Talkies would be a valuable thing to have (don’t forget a method of solar re-charging). Also, SW listening is often best in the early evening hours – some times during the day it is difficult to hear anything, depending on your radio and antenna system of course.
Every political subdivision (cities, townships, states, feds) is preparing or has prepared for this… all the equipment cache’d necessary to get those radio towers functioning again in the case of an EMP or CME event… from electricity generation, transmission equipment, and plenty of HHTs, mobiles transceivers and repeaters, and base stations to give emergency communications back to their political subdivision.
@CCO, No disrespect intended… in my opinion, I highly doubt it. In fact it is a well proven and documented fact that there are basically no EHV transformers as spares, as they are very, very expensive (and take 1 to 2 years to have built overseas). To say that every city, town, state, and the feds have all the spares necessary for all transmission and electrical power generation is… a bit over-the-top with regards to believability. I welcome substantiation though.
@CCO; I have to agree with Ken. They may have radios, computers and such in safe keeping, but the grid is something else altogether. There are few EHVs or any other transformers in stock. Usually the electric co. has only the 13KV line transformers in abundance (the ones on the poles in your neighborhood). These will be of no use without the EHVs. Having the radios is something, but it is small potatoes compared to the GRID itself. The fact that they are ALL built overseas is another issue as well. Good luck with getting top priority on those transformers. Survive well. Enjoy.
I have the Grundig, and could never hear any short wave broadcasts on it. I finally obtained my ham radio license, and now I understand why. All short wave is not the same. 2 meter and 7cm broadcasts can be heard with walkie talkies with short antennas (you will need a ham radio license to talk on them). They are very active, but most of the communications are by repeaters on tall buildings and nearby hilltops. I doubt the repeaters would be hardened. Would they survive and EMP?
Longer wavelengths require longer antennas. The longest of these antennas can be 200 feet. Even if your little sw radio could pick up these broadcasts, you won’t have the antenna to hear them.
If you could protect your ham radio from an EMP attack, this would be vary valuable. The 20 meter, 40 meter and 80 meter bands can, with the right propogation conditions, be heard for thousands of miles. If there really was an EMP attack the first and biggest casualty would be information. Is it just your city, your state, your country, or the whole world? How you respond will depend upon this information. If it is just your city, then hold out for a week or so, and you’ll be fine. If it is your state, you may have to hold out for weeks before law and order returns. If it is your whole country, it could be decades. If you don’t know, then what do you do?
It would be nice to know how bad the situation is, wouldn’t it? If you go into full-blown survival mode and start shooting people, it may be a tad bit embarassing to discover that it was only a one week event and then civilization returned. On the other hand, if it was the whole country, it would be nice to know that no help is coming — ever. If you had this information you might be able to bug out before everyone else figured it out.
Ham radio, with proper antennas, will allow you to listen and talk to other continents. If it survives the EMP, that is.
Sixpense….I will be taking the test for my ham radio license this weekend. What equipment do you recommend for preppers? I’m just starting to research the different options that would be safe in case of an EMP or other power outage (solar power, hand crank, etc.) Thanks!
Angie…… I’m sorry, but comunication equipment isn’t my forte. Wish I knew more. Good luck, anyway!
@Angie, Which classification of license are you taking the test for?
Ken…The Amateur Radio Operator license.
@Ken; The only license she can test for first is the “Technician” license. Then the “General” license and then the “Advanced”. The “morse code” requirement is much less than it used to be. There is no “morse” for the tech and gen licenses. The tech lets you in on a lot of HF bands (SW radio) and general lets you in on most of the other HF bands (160M down to 10M) . The only purpose of the Advanced license is to get in on the higher freqs in the 2 meter and below bands. Of course, in an emergency the FCC regs allow you to use ALL means at your disposal to communicate. I have a tech license and am testing for the General. This will give me all the privileges I want and during emergencies, I can basically do what I want. If you have comm after a magnetic storm (or EMP) then you are the man (or whatever you are) and I don’t think anyone is going to prosecute you over that. Just sayin’. Survive well. Enjoy.
@TripodXL, Years ago (more than I care to admit), I had obtained my General class, and unfortunately had let it expire a decade later. As it turns out you need to re-test once it expires and I haven’t made time to do it yet. Apparently the morse code is no longer a requirement. One of these days…
@Angie; It depends on what you want to do and also what your background is. If you just want to listen and chew the fat a little…I am new at this too and it’s kind of daunting getting into it…you will want a general wide band type of radio. I would join a local ham club, you can find them on the internet, and get someone to mentor you about what they have and why and get different opinions about radios and do your research. Get them to let you see them do the DXing (I think that’s the right term) so you can get a feel for it. You can get a single Yaesu that will give you all of the SW stuff (which is actually “long wave” these days) in the HF bands from 160M down to 10M bands. This includes CB frequencies by the way. These are the freqs that will let you talk “around the world” on skips. Now as a Technician, you aren’t allowed to talk on all those freqs, but no one can stop you from listening and in a real SHTF emergency the FCC regs will allow you to operate (test question BTW) anyway. I am in the process of getting my General and it will give me all the privileges I would want anyway. Hope that helps a little. Survive well. Enjoy.
I have a question about protection from an EMP. What if one placed double foil sided Celotex type insulation on the inside of a room, maybe a storage room. Would that be sufficient enough to protect electronics? Thanks in advance for any help.
Ken…. electricity is not my expertise, but thought I would chime in on the ehv transformers. A substation near our community was struck by lightening and the resulting fire destroyed a transformer like this. It effecting several thousand households. They brought in one on a semi trailer & hooked it up temporarily until the damaged one could be replaced. The new one arrived about three months latter. Also, if the commercial power company fails, most telephone & microwave towers, emergency service, hospitals, and community service are on back-up generators. These generators have computer boards and are programed to run/not run systems. If that board is damaged, it won’t run, period! There is no manual starting around this problem. You can only manual start when everything says you can start! They are also controlled by SCADA systems which are not reliable as a man on the ground. These SCADA systems also will set off alarms & malfunctions with power glitches. The generator at my municipality was fried three times in the last 10 years, not by lightening strikes, but from incoming lightening/electrical surges during a storm. Special equipment (surge protectors) was installed to correct this problem. They always fail when you need them the most. What are they going to do if we get something serious? I have worked with emergency management with several counties, and municipalities, isolated problems can be remedied, tri-state problem or bigger, we’re screwed! Your on your own. Pardon my french!
@sixpense, I hear ya… I know you work within the utility system, and you know what is reality in that regard. Knowing the budgetary limitations of nearly any organization today, including municipalities, I would not be surprised that only the bare minimum is held in reserve for emergencies. We live in a ‘just-in-time’ world where everyone expects to be able to get what they want or need within a time frame. This all works well, UNTIL there is a major hiccup or disaster. For those that can see-through the illusion, they are the ones who are preparing (out of common sense!). Anyway, I agree that we’re screwed if it comes to major disaster…
Ken….. I worked for a community where a tornado came through and decapitated all the trees and light poles, thankfully, no one was hurt. 24 hours latter, the county emergency management director took over the police station as his headquarters. The national guard was called in, six weeks total cutting & removing trees and debris. Not one guardsman knew how to sharpen a chainsaw! Never once was I asked what my needs were in the utility? Fuel, pumps, or manpower? There was no emergency shelter set up, no evacuations, no list of services for the residents. Mostly was all about being seen, out & about. Rerouting traffic, closing streets, & security was the important business of the day. The power company convoy moved into town the 2nd day, and then they really got to work. Them guys are the best! The town had power before nightfall.
All said & done, I recommend having your house in order. What the army always stressed, get your important papers (will) together. We as civilians need to get our house in order, think outside the box, get ahead of the curve, & pay attention to those people that have an ear to the ground.
Bye the way, that county director is a representive of DHS. I have been to meetings where the state DHS representive instructed us on security details for utilities. I remember the phrase, “Good job Brownie” after Katrina came calling! I guess you know what I think?
Anyone wanting to have their own back-up comm equipment should read up on basic antenna theory. A very good shortwave antenna can be as simple as shooting a fishing line up into a tree and using it to pull a 100-200 foot wire to use as an antenna (make sure it is grounded and insulated from your radio in some way). I am keeping a couple old microwave ovens around (one in the car) as portable Faraday cages, if a microwave oven can keep the dangerous waves in then it should be able to keep radio waves out! No, it would not have to be plugged-in, the wire mesh you see in front of the glass and the steel body is what blocks the radio/micro waves. I’m not an expert but that seems to make sence to me.
If ANYBODY is left alive after an EMP event they will be broadcasting on every available shortwave freq. – remember the t.v. coverage after 911?
Night Owl…I’m not so sure that microwave ovens don’t allow any radiation to pass through. You can find videos on Youtube where people are actually measuring the amount of radiation coming out of them and it’s quite high even from several feet away. Thanks for the advice on antennas. I don’t know a lot about that yet…still learning!
@Angie, a simple metal trash can with a lid will work too. The predominant wavelengths of EMP are apparently such that even something kept within typical size metal screening material (with no large openings) will be adequate protection. Further arguments arise regarding double-insulating and grounding, as well as your physical location with proximity to the EMP source. Having said that, a microwave oven ‘should’ be just fine for a reasonable amount of protection – except perhaps for ground zero