EMP Question on Crank Power Items

[Matt In Oklahoma]

What are you alls thoughts on the effects of EMP on wind up, crank or shake lights, radios etc? If the device was drained or unused would it be ok or not? My thought is that if there was any charge the unto might be compromised but if it was dead then it would be ok but I really dunno

[EX121]

My understanding of EMP is that if the device dosn't have advanced electronics like a microchip, or some diodes then it won't be affected. The simpler the electronic parts the better, so they should be ok, especially if like you say they are not charged.

[Klayton]

If I remember right its only certain items that are damaged. I am by no means an electrical engineer so not positive. For example crank-up flashlight MIGHT work, but the light bulb filament may have been fried during the EMP.

Do we have any electrical engineers here?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

[QUOTE=Klayton;35111] but the light bulb filament may have been fried during the EMP. QUOTE]
most are LED so wouldnt that be better?

[Klayton]

light emitting diodes act as resistors, dont they? again im not an electrical guru

and my flashlights are about 50% incandescent and 50% LED... My big MAG lites are incandescent... My hunting spotlight is incandescent...

[Matt In Oklahoma]

My hunting spotlight is incandescent...

the one taped to your 338? :)

[Klayton]

lol... NAH the 1,000,000 candlepower spotter wife bought many moons ago at Wally World as a Father's day gift...

[Grinnan Barrett]

the hand cranked radios for instance have an internal rechargeable battery that you must connect before you try and use the crank feature. If they are not tube type radios they are affected by EMP. as for lights, I am not sure. I would think there is no chip to be worried with so it would not have an effect on them. GB

[Matt In Oklahoma]

the hand cranked radios for instance have an internal rechargeable battery that you must connect before you try and use the crank feature. If they are not tube type radios they are affected by EMP. as for lights, I am not sure. I would think there is no chip to be worried with so it would not have an effect on them. GB

interesting, thanks!

[miked2345]

I've read that some electronic devices could be fried even with no batteries in them and not plugged into the wall. The EMP would create a charge on the board and toast the components. The best bet is to put your small electronics in a Faraday Cage. I was going to build one, using plans from the web, but I've read that a simple metal trash can with a metal lid will work also. (Line the can with cardboard so your electronics don't touch the sides... Hmmm... Did I see that on this board somewhere??)

[Grantmeliberty]

Having lived through the first semi-intentional EMP experiment in July 1962, Starfish Prime, I should have a wealth of information and knowledge about the subject. Sadly, not so much. I was 13 and living in Hawaii at the time, and we were told that we would be able to observe the above ground (200+ miles in space) detonation of a fusion device from the south side of Oahu. We parked our 1960 Studebaker and watched the flash in the sky, then went home. The only transistor in that car was in the hybrid radio, part tubes (in the radio frequency tuning and amplification section) and a transistor as the audio amplifier feeding the speaker. The radio wasn't affected in any way. Some 300 street lights were blown out, probably incandescent rather than mercury vapor at the time, I believe because they had long wires acting as antennas funneling the spike right to them. There was other damage, and many low orbit satellites were wiped out. The all transistor radios at our house on the north side of the island were not affected, and none of my friends on the south side of the island had any problems with their transistor radios that I heard about.
I believe that anything which didn't have a connection to a long wire would be relatively safe, but I couldn't guarantee it, and if I did and I was wrong you would have a hard time reaching customer service for warrantee service LOL
Overall, I believe that it would be good to have a short wave radio and spares of old laptops and a digital voltmeter stashed in a Faraday cage protective box.
Another element to consider is that there can be a shadow effect, so that if you were in the mountains and shielded from line of sight you may be protected anyway. The streetlights which failed were on the south facing side of the island, and this was 900 miles from the test.