Could I create a home-made EMP?

How would I go about doing that. That is, if I wanted to.

Watching Futureweapon on Discovery are we?

Speaking of future weapons, i’ve recently built myself a time-repeating machine. I wonder if it works.

You don’t. At least not without violating federal communications and explosives laws.

Here’s what you do:

Turn a light on.

Congratulations, you’ve just generated an EMP.

ok, lets supposed I didn’t care about violating federal smansy pantsy laws…

Detonate a nuclear warhead over the area you wish to knock out power.

how can I do that without the nuke though. I’d like to be around to see the aftermath.

  1. Nuke from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
  2. When come back, bring pie.
  3. Profit/Hi Opal

Some discussion in an SD column: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_294.html

I have one of those too.

I have one of those too…

EMP weapons have been around since WWII. The WWII version would make planes just drop out of the sky! Their engines would just quit! Don’t remember reading much about them in history books? Hmm… well maybe they didn’t work as well as advertised.

There are two main problems with EMP weapons.

  1. The inverse square law. The energy in your EMP drops off proportionally to the square of the distance. The energy 2 feet away from the EMP is 1/4th that of the energy 1 foot away. The energy 10 feet away is 1/100th of the energy 1 foot away. Even with a HUGE EMP burst (like from a nuke) the energy still drops off very very quickly the further you get from the blast.

  2. Farady cages. Some very smart dude named Michael Faraday discovered that metal boxes prevent EMP type stuff on the outside of the box from getting inside the box, and also prevents EMP type stuff on the inside of the box from getting to the outside of the box. What’s special about a Faraday cage? Not much, it turns out. All you need is a box made out of metal. Heck, you don’t even need a box. A metal screen works as well as a solid piece of metal, which is why we tend to call them Faraday cages and not Faraday boxes. Natural faraday cages are everywhere. A metal tool box is a Faraday cage. The body of a car is almost a Faraday cage (it doesn’t quite completely enclose your engine in a box, but close). A steel frame building makes a natural Faraday cage. Ever have problems using your cell phone inside a shopping mall, but it works great as soon as you get near the doors? That’s why. The building steel prevents the signal from the cell phone tower from getting to you, and prevents the signal from your cell phone from reaching the tower. All of these natural shields significantly reduce the effectiveness of EMP weapons, which is why bombers weren’t dropping out of the sky left right and sideways during WWII.

Want to make an EMP in your back yard? Well, I won’t tell you how exactly because the mods probably wouln’t allow it, but a WWII era EMP weapon was based around a magnetron, not a nuke (hint hint).

PS - Don’t play with magnetrons unless you know enough not to hurt yourself.

I have always felt that these should be used in high speed police chases to kill the ignition system in the escaping vehicle. Has this been proposed/tested yet?
BTW, I didn’t catch the program.

How about a laser in the EM, instead of light, range?

Yep. They’ve been testing this stuff for years. Systems that fired an EMP at the vehicle have been found to be very ineffective. There have been other systems tested that are placed on the ground in front of an approaching car, and fire the EMP upward into the car when the car drives over it. These systems have stopped cars under controlled conditions, but have not proven reliable enough for general use. Old fashioned spike strips work a lot better.

OK
I have a small magnetron from a defunct microwave oven. Cutaway inner cell and all.
Also a larger one from a 26 year old larger model with magnetron filament intact. Need the information to build a new power supply and controls.

As I recall, the military has used “EMPT” bombs, that produce an EMP pulse with a range of a few hundred meters; used in the first Gulf War IIRC. Supposedly, they work by wrapping a powerful electromagnet around an explosive; when it explodes, the magnet lasts long enought to impart a shockwave to it’s magnetic field and create a pulse. It’s been years since I read anything about them, however. I have heard occasional claims that versions ( no doubt weaker ) can be built with commercially available components; how much of that is scaremongering I don’t know.