On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 2:55:52 AM UTC-5, AndyW wrote:
On 17/11/2015 18:30, gareth wrote:
Those who were self-taught to the exclusion of sideband and sidetone
are no doubt unaware that in the event of a nuclear detonation that an EMP
will melt the RF amps in their RXs because of the amount of power that
their antennae will pick up?

It is not just the RF amps.
The EMP is a high power broadband RF pulse that will turn almost any bit
of wire regardless of length into an antenna and so fry any small scale
electronics that it attaches to.
Any electronics that is not in a Faraday cage is at risk if it is in a
high power region of the pulse.

Andy

Andy

Is there any possibility that that is an overstatement of the threat. I'm no expert. I don't pretend to be. When I was a Zoomy; low these many years ago; we were instructed to never open the case of any critical electronic item outside the shielded repair area. All of the Ground Radio Equipment was protected by two coaxial devices. The first covered stuff like lightning, snow static, etc.. The second one which was always at the antenna port of the radio was for EMP. The instructors alleged that if the equipment were installed in accordance with the technical manual's instructions and maintained that way it was safe from EMP. EMP protectors fail open. Each of the spares kits used in Strategic Air Command contained several of each type of protector.

So what I want to know is were they misinformed? Was that all hokus pokus. We were certainly held to a high level of compliance with that training. Since many of my officers behaved like business executive trainees I gradually lost all respect for my immediate leadership but that didn't lead me to believe that it was all nonsense.

I would truly appreciate answers based on actual testing or pear reviewed research rather than rules of thumb extended to unrelated issues.

--
Tom Horne W3TDH

On Wednesday, November 18, 2015 at 2:55:52 AM UTC-5, AndyW wrote:
On 17/11/2015 18:30, gareth wrote:
Those who were self-taught to the exclusion of sideband and sidetone
are no doubt unaware that in the event of a nuclear detonation that an EMP
will melt the RF amps in their RXs because of the amount of power that
their antennae will pick up?

It is not just the RF amps.
The EMP is a high power broadband RF pulse that will turn almost any bit
of wire regardless of length into an antenna and so fry any small scale
electronics that it attaches to.
Any electronics that is not in a Faraday cage is at risk if it is in a
high power region of the pulse.

Andy