Letter Re: A Handy Small Faraday Cage

James, I found a surprise at the local Wal-Mart the other day: an American made 6 gallon galvanized metal container with locking lid (the bail is shaped to hold the tightly fitting lid closed when pulled up). With the lid on, it is approximately 15 inches high and about 14 inches in diameter at its widest point. The manufacturer is Behrens Manufacturing in Winona, Minnesota. Besides making a great small container for feed, etc., it could be a great EMP shield for your smaller electronic devices that will easily fit under a counter or bench. The price is good also: $14.97 …




Letter Re: Prioritized Prepping

Hi JWR, In response to Sunshine’s research into gas masks online, I’ve purchased from Approved Gas Masks.com before. They sell many different brands of masks, canisters and other NBC products. The canisters I’ve bought use the standard NATO threads, are sealed and dated. They’re going to set you back a little more than the mil surplus but they’re current production from reputable companies. Hope this helps. – S.M. from Pennsylvania




Two Letters Re: Prioritized Prepping

Jim: I couldn’t agree more with the article written by T.Z. regarding prioritized prepping. Many of us lack the needed organization and discipline to distribute our prepping budget evenly between the different survival categories and instead succumb to impulse buys – more ammo, more guns, more dried food, more camping gear. While stocking up on non-perishable supplies that will always have some use may seem like a good idea, what good are 50,000 rounds of ammo if your only water filter just broke, or you ran out of oil for your two-stroke chain saw? My way of managing these impulse …




Prioritized Prepping, by Z.T.

I, like so many people across the country, can’t walk out of my local sporting goods store without buying the limit of ammunition. Now, before you judge me, realize that most places limit you to small boxes of ammunition, and usually one two per caliber. Is it being prudent or just being obsessed? While the firearm and ammo situation is very much a media-hyped thing,  I have even talked about things you must buy every time you are out, like my article on Things Commonly Overlooked.  But what about those items that you pick up, look at the price tag, but pass …




Letter Re: Microwave Oven Method for Decontaminating N95 Face Masks

Dear JWR: I had an interesting conversation with a member of the CDC about decontaminating N95 face masks. The study results can be found here. You’ll notice that the test gives positive results but more research is needed. Here was the conversation I had with Edward Fisher after reading it. Here are some snippets from our exchange: Me: 1. Did you remove the metal nosepieces from the masks before sterilization? 2. Any updates to this study? Edward: We did not modify any of the tested filtering facepiece respirators before decontamination. If the masks had metal nosepieces, they were not removed. …




Letter Re: Protection from Radioactive Fallout

James: To further the excellent article Protection from Radioactive Fallout by Tennessean: The author cites “The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan, 670 pages, November 2006”.  A reprint version of this book is available, but is more than $50 at Amazon in paperback. As this book is in the public domain, I have made an on-line version of the 1977 Third Edition available at my site for many years. The index points to PDFs for the individual chapters which may be printed or downloaded for offline storage. Accompanying it is a web application which implements the …




Protection from Radioactive Fallout by Tennessean

Part One About me: I’m a retired Ph.D. biochemist who has worked with beta emitters in the laboratory.  I’ve no financial interest in any of the firms or products mentioned below. This post is dedicated to the late Cresson Kearny and his wonderful hard work in preparing the most essential book Nuclear War Survival Skills available at www.beprepared.com and other sources.   Dr. Stephen Hawking was once told by his publisher that for every equation he placed in his book the readership would drop by half.  Dear reader the author will harass you with only three equations.  The late great thermodynamicist  …




Letter Re: Preserving a Digital Library

JWR: I had to ad my own two cents to the Preserving a Digital Library. As a seasoned IT pro myself (one of my early customers upgraded all the the Windows for Workgroups network I setup for him to Windows 95 himself and called me when he couldn’t get it working) I have reliance on my systems, be it my cache of reference documents and ebooks to documents I’ve written myself to my gear and prep inventory spreadsheets. I see no reason to choose Windows XP over Windows 7 or Windows 2000 or Windows 3.1 when it comes to back …




Preserving a Digital Library, by H335

Many articles have been written on preserving food, weapons, ammo, and various other perishables. While there are also many articles regarding the preservation of digital information, rarely do I see one written with the thought that perhaps the infrastructure itself might no longer be intact. This article will address several key areas, including equipment, media, printing and reproduction, testing, and backups. While books and print materials are critical to maintain, electronics can be preserved and protected even against a Carrington Event or EMP weapon. My approach here is Keep It Simple As Possible (KISAP). The more technologically savvy may argue …




Letter Re: How to Convert an Ammo Can into a Faraday Cage

Sir: I have some of the larger military surplus ammo cans and would like to build my own Faraday cages to store my spare electronics [to protect them from EMP or a severe solar storm]. Do you have any sources to guide me? OBTW, I just finished reading your novel “Patriots”. That was a great read and I could not put it down. Regards,- J.L. (Former NYPD Officer) JWR Replies: What you plan to do is is pretty simple, since the can and lid are already great Faraday shields. The only issue is the gap where they join. That joint needs to …




Letter Re: Faraday Caging a Bed?

Mr. Rawles, My child is sick. I need to build a Faraday cage to surround my child’s bed. We are in a second floor apartment. Can I use wood and chicken wire? To create a ground [for the cage], can I: Take an extension cord, tear out the double prong but leave the ground post, cut off the opposite end attach the wires to the wire cage. Would that work? Thank You, – M.R. JWR Replies: I will pray for you and your child. Faraday cages have no positive health effects for humans unless for some very unlikely reason that …




Letter Re: NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

JWR: I would also recommend the Emergency Response Guidebook published jointly by the USDOT and Canadian and Mexican Transportation agencies. This reference (ERG) lets you identify the material being transported by pipeline, tanker truck, or railcar. As a guide for First Responders to a HazMat accident, it also lists specific hazards and evacuation distances in the event of spill or fire. I use this book to evaluate how at risk I am to accidents involving bulk materials being transported nearby. You need to pay attention to the placard (label) information on the side of the tanker. In my community I …




NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

JWR: I found an interesting free NIOSH publication concerning recommendations for protective equipment when exposed to chemicals. It is technical so this is something that you will have to read ahead to know how to use. It also gives a listing of what the DOT numbers on placards of transportation equipment mean with a reference to what personal protective equipment is needed. If you scroll to page 379 it will reference a page number which tells what the chemical is including the threat and what protective measures need to be taken. – Bill N.




Letter Re: Mass Versus Bullets (and Hail Stones and Gamma Radiation)

James, I appreciate seeing some folks trying to build some sort of fallout shelter, as these may, unfortunately come in handy someday soon.   Since I build these for a living, I thought I’d throw some basic suggestions out there for the readers. For simple fallout shelters, assuming that blast will not be a factor, above ground concrete walls should be 24 inches thick (or better if you can afford it!).  Walls below grade can be a mere 10 inches thick.   Ceilings:  24 inches will provide fair protection, assuming “rainout” does not occur in your locale. [The Swiss shelter building code …




Letter Re: Mass Versus Bullets (and Hail Stones and Gamma Radiation)

Hello James, I read your blog every day and enjoy finding information that is useful. Recently a posting discussed the use of the 5.56 mm NATO bullet and its poor performance in penetrating automobiles.   I took notice of this information about the penetrating power or lack of penetrating power of the 5.56 in relation to single and double barriers. We moved onto our five acres of land nine years ago. One of the first building projects was to have a contractor installed tornado shelter set in the ground. Then over the next two years I added a 16’x20’x50” high …