Do my grapes turn to raisins? Am I par boiled? Do I go blind? Do I get that “not so fresh” feeling? What!?
America’s Ultra-Secret Weapon
For sure, you’ll be in the market for a new watch. Other than that, I dunno.
During the Cold War, I believe that both the U.S. and the USSR planned first-strike EMF bursts using nukes(a thermonuclear device generates one hell of a lot of juice when it goes bang). The theory involved detonating the warheads at high altitude in a geographic pattern that would blanket the enemy country with high-intensity microwaves. The hoped-for result was the collapse of the enemy’s ability to strike back and communicate in general.
My guess is you wouldn’t feel a thing. But that button you push to launch a counter attack wouldn’t do anything, your radio and video go dead, the coffee maker quits working, and your GPS screen goes blank.
The whole point of the weapon is that it destroys electronic equipment without harming the people.
I thought it was EMP, as in Electro Magnetic Pulse. I could be confusing things though.
Ah, after googling a bit I find that EMF = Electric Magnetic Field. Everything electronic has one. And an EMP would be a very large EMF occuring when a Nuke is lit up. Correct me if I’m wrong.
[sub]I really should know this stuff up and down.[/sub]
and the EMP would knock out just about every electronic device within a certain radius. An EMP from a nuke knocks out electronics within like 15-20 miles IIRC. This thing could be very precise, meaning, you send enough of these little things over Command and Control centers, and suddenly, the Iraqi army has no ability to coordinate any thing. The ultimate in cutting off communications…
The coffee maker quits working?! Barbarians! Have they no soul?
RR
Whatever happened it would be…
UNBELIEVABLE…
OH!
Well, there’s this from the cited source:
I think it might suck if you had lots of fillings, too…
No more Tetris on your cell phone either 
And there’s the rub. As with most measures there is a countermeasure. I’m fairly certain most American military battlefield equipment (tanks, planes and such) are hardened against getting toasted by an EM pulse.
I do know if I was contemplating getting into a tussle with the US an EMP weapon (non-nuclear) would be high on my agenda of weapons to design. The US has a heavy reliance on techno wizardry so anything to defang that beast would be helpful. Even if you didn’t fry the components you’d stop all the data links between AWACS, GPS, ground control centers and so on which would still be useful.
Point of clarification:
Do the effects of an HPM/EMP weapon affect just operating electronics and/or do can they also affect turned off, unplugged electronics as well?
Yes and no. Some military materiel is hardened against EMP, but far from “most” of it. It’s difficult enough simply shielding devices against other RF radiating devices that happen to be operating in the immediate vicinity - and these obviously generate a far lower signal than EMP. Shielding against RF interference is accomplished by enclosing devices in a conductive box; the greater the expected amplitude of exposure, the more conductive the box must be. And since EMP is an extremely high level of RF, it’s extremely difficult to protect against it. Successfully doing so requires quite a bit of bulk, something not always feasible on electronic equipment. MIL-STD-462, I believe, gives the applicable engineering guidelines for RF interference.
EMP affects all devices whether operating or not. EMP also shows a special affinity for silicon. For this reason many hardened devices will be designed using vacuum tubes.
Whoops. It’s MIL-STD-461, not 462.
http://assist2.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/basic_profile.cfm?ident_number=35789
Many milspec semi-conductors using gallium-arsenide instead of silicon because of EMP. I don’t remember reading about vacuum tube equipment, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
[minor hijack]
Wasn’t that one of the speculations about why the MiG-29 had micro-tubes, aside from the Russian deficient semi-conductor technology? Designed at the height of the cold-war, a much greater emphasis was on NBC (probably only nuclear for an aircraft) survivability than now.
[/minor hijack]
And here’s the TEMPEST specification for design of EMP hardened facilities.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp/toc.htm
Yup. That’s my recollection from the trade liturature in my days working as a military contractor. We designed & assembled custom AC plasma displays - tube, electronics, packaging - the whole shootin’ match.
So just how big would such a pulse have to be to get a massive Dark Angel scenario? Possible with today’s technology? If so, what’s prohibiting such a thing? I assume cost, materials, and expertise.
I think that Im gonna put a big mirror on the top of my house, thus bouncing that signal right back to their special rocket rendering it useless 
At least SOME military equipment is well shielded. That’s a major part of the Naval vessels I do design work for.