Jack Lawson: How to build a Faraday Cage for EMP Protection

The below items are basic items that are MUST HAVE to survive a Disaster Crisis or Catastrophic Event…

A comprehensive and detailed list of Preparedness and Survival items is found in the Civil Defense Manual.

• Water stored (A renewable ‘treatable to potable water’ source if the Crisis becomes long term).
• Emergency Food (alternative food sources from gardening, area gathering of wild edibles, fishing and hunting if the Crisis becomes long term).
• Medical aid and medicines (substitutes or slow weening from these medicines if the Crisis becomes long term).
• Shelter.
• Weapons, spare parts and Ammunition.

What comes first?

Now, the internet is full of arguments as to the correct priority each of these items. This is a conflict amongst many people and continues to be a point of contention amongst preparedness and survival people. Actually, there is no correct answer for order of these… they are ALL necessary for survival.
Without water, you won’t survive to use your weapons to defend yourself for more than a few days to a week.
Without food, you won’t survive to use your weapons to defend yourself after a month.
Without medicines, some will not survive to help defend the group after a few days.
Without shelter, in some climates, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to survive for more than a few hours.
Without weapons, spare parts and ammunition, you can’t keep others from taking everything… your food, water and other supplies and in the process probably killing you and everyone in your group or Neighborhood Protection Plan^TM (NPP).

For a successful group effort to defend an area with a Neighborhood Protection Plan^TM you also need…

• Area Intelligence.
• Sanitation.
• Communications.
• Proactive defensive tactics, prepared fortifications and Protective Perimeter alert and security.
• Fire and a source of fuel for cooking and heating.
• Night lighting including red or green filter lights.
• Firefighting knowledge and equipment.

In addition to the above ABSOLUTE NECESSITIES…
I will add a Faraday Cage.

Why? Because the possibility of a man-made Electro Magnetic Pulse event (EMP), or as known by another term, the High-Altitude Electro Magnetic Pulse event (HEMP)… will become way more probable in the next years.
In my opinion, the Globalist Elites are losing their grip on crushing the free will of people of the world and forcing them to behave like mindless illogical insects in their proposed Human Ant Colony. People’s logic will no longer accept their crap upside-down agenda.
Leading the resistance to this are Americans… who are armed to the teeth and can resist force with force. I don’t see the disarmament of Americans fitting into the Globalist Elite’s time table agenda. So, they will have to eventually eliminate us… with a real pandemic or EMP. Not the cold and flu version of a pandemic/epidemic… but something much more deadly or devastating to the population of the U.S. such as… Small Pox… or an Electro Magnetic Pulse event.
Am I wearing my tin foil hat again? Well, it seems I have good company. Deagle.com (or Deagel), is a rival of two-century old Janes… and if you don’t know who Janes is… you need to read outside the box more often. Deagle.com, like Janes, is connected to anyone and everyone in intelligence and governmental circles. Deagle.com shocked all that read in their 2021 report. If you question the above… research the 2025 ‘Deagel.com’ Forecast: War, Population Reduction, & The Collapse Of The West… forecasting a 70% reduction of the United States Population by 2025. Deagle.com has never answered why or what they based this on.
I will concentrate here on protecting against EMP (not CME). The Electro Magnetic Pulse event is explained in detail in the Chapter “Emanuelson on preparing for an EMP attack or Solar Storm” of the Civil Defense Manual. Protection against Mother Nature’s Solar Flare or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is also discussed extensively in the Chapter Authored by Jerry Emanuelson, one of the foremost experts knowledgeable in the effects of EMPs and Solar Flares.

The Electro Magnetic Pulse event (EMP) will destroy… anything with a semi-conductor in it… which means almost all electronics.

If your safe has an electronic lock on it… have a manual method of opening it. Remember to put electronic gun sights, night vision sights and night vision equipment, which are electronic, in a Faraday Cage too to protect from EMP. DO NOT rely on your steel gun safe to protect against EMP. Safes give very poor EMP protection unless specifically designed as such. See the Chapter ‘Emanuelson on preparing for an EMP attack or Solar Storm’ in the Civil Defense Manual.
There are many items needed for survival and how they should be stored is important, but the one stated here is electronics equipment. It’s important you have all electronics and two-way radios stored in a Faraday Cage. I will explain the Faraday Cage and how to easily build one further on in this essay.

Faraday Cage Protection

All electronic items must be in a Faraday Cage… small Solar Panels charging units, rectifying diodes for large Solar Panels, chargers, radios, laptop computers, electronic gun sights… anything with semi-conductors, microprocessor or LED displays must be put in a Faraday Cage… like the one just described or the one shown under Electro-Magnetic Pulse Events… or EMP Catastrophic Events.
When you don’t store your electronics in a Faraday Cage… you and your electronics equipment will be in the ‘New Dark Ages’… like everyone else when an EMP strikes. Your equipment will only be good to use as paper weights.
Reference the “Specialized To Do and Items needed for different Extraordinary Catastrophic Events” in the Index of the Civil Defense Manual
For the Electromagnetic Event (EMP) or Solar Storm Extraordinary Catastrophic Event-Specialized To Do and Items needed.
(Reference the Chapter in the Civil Defense Manual… “Emanuelson on preparing for an EMP attack or Solar Storm”)
Faraday Cage… you won’t need this after an EMP or Solar Storm if you didn’t have your electronics protected by it in the first place. Like a parachute, if you don’t have one when you needed one, you probably won’t ever need one again. Put your electronics in a Faraday Cage NOW-NOW. The EMP is the one Extraordinary Catastrophic Event that is very plausible. See the Chapter “Emanuelson on preparing for an EMP attack or Solar Storm” for instructions on how to build an inexpensive Faraday Cage.
Non-electric items you need to get if you don’t have…

• A Lehman well bucket and rope. See the Chapter ‘Water.’
• Rotary water pump.
• Solar oven.
• Hand tools.
• Heirloom seeds, gardening supplies and livestock supplies.
• Multiple small solar panels as electrical generation.
• Manual can openers like the military P38 and P51 (the P51 is a full 2” long).
• Crank operated grinders for grain and meat.
• Hand coffee grinder.

See the Chapter in the Civil Defense Manual “Emanuelson on preparing for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack or Severe Solar Storm”

That Chapter by Jerry Emanuelson covers the following issues, items and more relating to EMP and Solar Storms…

• The Faraday Cage
• Building a locking-lid galvanized metal trash can Faraday Cage
• Building a Faraday Cage for an Engine Powered Electric Generator
• Testing a Faraday Cage
• The electrical grid and its transformers
• The temporary power grid infrastructure
• Solar electric generating systems or Solar Panels
• Shielding electronics against an EMP
• Safes and file cabinets are not reliable as Faraday Cages
• Batteries and EMP
• Short wave radios
• The vacuum tube and EMP
• LED lights and CFL lights
• Your LED flashlight
• For most Faraday Cage applications… your ground will do the opposite of what you intend it to do.
• Alternative electrical
• Computers and data storage protection
• Large item storage shielding from EMP
• Surge Suppressors
• Vehicles and EMP
• Electric Generators and EMP
• EMP and grounding
• The UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)
• The ‘Cloud’ storage
• The cellular phone system
• The EMP Commission Report on Critical National Infrastructures

Also see Jerry’s section on “Nuclear Power Plant Disaster” and “Dirty Bombs” at: www.Futurescience.com

Build an inexpensive Faraday Cage

On a galvanized trash can, the electrical connection between the body of the can and the lid is critical. For this reason, use only a new galvanized trash can for this purpose. Dents and distortions in the roundness of the lid and the upper part of the galvanized can severely deteriorate the high-frequency shielding effectiveness of the can. Also, the lid must be kept very firmly in place for a galvanized trash can to be an effective shield. I spent less than $60 on this a decade ago. I am sure it’s more now.

Notice in the photo of the lid on the Faraday Cage, that I pop riveted snap down draw latches on the can to pull the lid down tightly against the aluminum screen that is over the lip of the garbage can opening. The entire inside of the can and the lid is lined with cardboard and all is hot glued in place.
I hot glued a strip of foam at the top inside to keep the aluminum screen from poking fingers. Radios must be wrapped in aluminum foil and the edges of the foil taped with air conditioning aluminum metal foil tape (not the shiny metal looking, but plastic, air conditioning tape).
A Faraday Cage is for the storage and protection against EMP of your: two-way radios, base station emergency radios, laptop computer, digital cameras, electronic and night vision gun sights, night vision equipment, electronic medical equipment and any other LED or electronic equipment, from high voltage ‘spikes.’
Remember to put electronic gun sights, night vision sights and night vision equipment, which are electronic, in a Faraday Cage too. DO NOT rely on your steel gun safe. Metal gun safes give very poor EMP protection unless specifically outfitted for EMP. In addition, the electronic lock on your gun safe and other similar electronic locks may be destroyed. It is necessary to have a backup mechanical lock mechanism to access your safe and other similar secure locking systems.
Back up your computer on DVD or CD type disks wrapped in first, a heavy plastic garbage bag, then wrapped in metal foil and stored in your Faraday Cage… these are not generally affected by EMP, but put one laptop computer in your Faraday Cage with all your applications and data on it and on disks or multiple foil wrapped thumb drives.

As Jerry recommends. You’re better off not grounding your Faraday Cage if you don’t have an education in grounding, from a physics and electrical standpoint. Let your Faraday Cage ‘stand alone,’ preferably a couple of feet off the floor of where you store it. DO NOT place items on top of the can. As noted in Jerry’s above article, grounding a Faraday Cage can actually direct more destructive high voltage towards the electronics equipment stored inside, by way of the ground wire into the Faraday Cage, channeling high voltage to the item inside the Faraday Cage. The same goes for antennae and power cords. Disconnect them.
Grounding your Faraday Cage may do the opposite that the principle of a Faraday Cage is intended to do… isolate electronic components from Electro-Magnetic Pulse high ‘spike’ voltage damage. Grounding can help, but it has to be done properly. This is a science unto itself reserved for those who deal specifically with EMP grounding. For you… do not ground your Faraday Cage.

Consultation

In my opinion, Jerry Emanuelson is one of, if not the most knowledgeable person on EMP and Solar Flares in the United States. The Chapter “Emanuelson on preparing for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack or Severe Solar Storm” by Jerry provides common language clarifying information on this mostly misunderstood phenomenon. Jerry is one of the most intelligent, thorough and common-sense people I have had the good fortune to come across.
You need a degree in Electronics Engineering and or Physics to understand most people’s writings in the field of EMP and Solar Flares. Jerry has an Electrical Engineering degree and is one of only a handful of people with this advanced education, and in my humble opinion is the best person, who can provide information in a manner that we common people can understand.
If you have questions regarding EMP for your personal situation, Jerry is available for individual consulting via email and phone on a flat fee per hour basis. Email Jerry first. Jerry is very good at understanding individual situations using email and/or phone and suggesting possible solutions and answers. His advice is cheap and well worth it. I highly recommend Jerry.
Contact Jerry Emanuelson on EMP related matters at [email protected]

From Jerry…

I am glad to answer brief questions on this subject, and email from readers is very valuable in helping me to improve this web site; but please don’t be one of those people who sends me pages of questions and expects me to spend hours answering them for free. (I actually do get emails like that.)
Also, please be aware of the fact that more than half of all the email that I get regarding my rather large web site consists of questions that are already answered on the pages of the web site. I know that there is a lot of material to go through on this web site, but please try to read through the parts that seem to be relevant to your questions before emailing me. And please be patient since my web sites cover much more than just EMP, and I am constantly buried in email.
One of the major problems that I have been having over the past few years is the number of people sending me ‘one quick question’ which requires a long and complicated answer. For this reason, I have been running several weeks behind in answering most of my email.
I was raised on a farm, but spent most of my life living in a city. My career has been spent working in production factories as well as on isolated mountaintops in the Rocky Mountains. So, I have a good understanding of a wide range of situations.
Thank you.

In the next Civil Defense Manual Blog Post… Learn how to build a torch, make an oil lighting lamp and how to make oil for the lamp from tree bark.