High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP)

[1972RedNeck]

I recently learned about HEMP's in school and was wondering if they could affect ignition modules and non-point type regulators. I assume that point type distributors and point type regulators would be immune to a HEMP? How about coils, batteries, starters, and alternators (externally regulated)?

[68shortstep]

If you want to read a story that'll scare the cr@p out of you, try to find the book "10 Seconds After."

Realty type SciFi about our side - the US - being on the Surprise(d) !!! side of an EMP attack.

This very issue is discussed in the text of the story.

[Gonepostal]

EMP will affect any and all electronics , batteries included but old school manual trans rides can be pushed started and stay running real nasty stuff.
(Ret. SSG US Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team Leader)

[cdowns]

when i was in school the HEMPs we learned about we just rolled up and smoked

[panhandler62]

EMP will induce a current in anything conductive. Hos much of a current depends on how much impedance to ground there is and how much damage depends on how delicate the circuit is.

Your 68 truck will probably run afterwards but your smart phone will be a paper weight.

[54Caddy]

Originally Posted by cdowns

when i was in school the HEMPs we learned about we just rolled up and smoked

HAHAHAH thats what i was thinking too!!

['68OrangeSunshine]

I always try to steer clear of Area 51 and the Old Roswell Highway, in case some low-flying screamin' greenie generates a field that would affect my ignition. It happened to Richard Dreyfuss' truck in CE3K, right?
As Cmdr Montgomery Scott of Star Fleet says: "the more you complicate the plumbing, the harder it is to fix the leak."
I heard the Soviet military kept vacuum tube radios and electronics in service longer than anyone because they were more impervious to EMP burnout [like you'd get in a nuke airburst] than solid state electronics [transistors and diodes, etc.] Of course they used metal cans instead of little glass tubes.
I wonder if Pertronix would melt under an alien disruptor ray? It could fool them since it looks like a points set-up from the outside.

[panhandler62]

You can build a Faraday cage around anything you are worried about if you want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Call me crazy but I have a spare ignition module wrapped up in a metal ammo can (makeshift faraday cage) just in case of an airburst nuke....not even joking...

[panhandler62]

I live like 3 miles away from an airbase. I plan to be vaporized.

[terry b]

As if it matters.