Letter Re: Questions on Faraday Cages and Radiological Survey Meter EMP Resistance

Hello Jim –
Fantastic Blog – I am a little late to the party and just discovered SurvivalBlog last week working some survival related searches on Google. I read your novel [“Patriots”] too, years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

My questions: I have searched around and can not find much practical information on Faraday Cages, especially directions for constructing them at home. What design is effective? What is not? Should they be grounded? etc. I know this information is out there, and I’ll bet that more than one reader of the Blog can help – and I’ll also bet that the topic will interest most readers. Also, there seems to be a renewed interest in radiology survey equipment in general – check out eBay for the recent flurry of activity of sellers with the old 1960s Civil Defense survey meters, dosimeters, and dosimeter chargers…thank you Iran and North Korea! I know that some older transistor-based radios are thought to be very resistant to EMP, I was wondering how these vintage instruments would hold up. Thank you. – Rowland

JWR Replies: I’m not an RF engineer, so don’t take the following as gospel, but I did do some research on EMP, as background for a series of EMP hardening and test articles that I wrote for Defense Electronics magazine back in the late 1980s. For that series, I took a trip to Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico where I interviewed a half dozen EMP specialist engineers and toured the U.S. Air Force TRESTLE facility.

My general advice for those that suggest making their entire house into a Faraday cage: Don’t. It will probably be wasted effort. The biggest problem is that any external linear metallic structure such as a radio or television antenna, a phone line, or a power line that enters the house will act as an EMP conductor and make the cage useless. Second, unless you are quite meticulous about making the cage a completely integral shell without any gaps, then it will allow the passage of the pulse. (I can’t imagine the complexity of building an entirely off-grid house with no outside communication, no external antennas, and all power generation done inside of the Faraday cage!) Second, every window screen must be grounded to the rest of the house “cage” and every door must have interlocking “teeth” around its perimeter. Even the floors must include a mesh. Lastly, the often cited but fallacious “one inch mesh chicken wire” approach is insufficient, since EMP waveforms are very broadband, and include some very short wavelengths. Unless the mesh apertures are smaller than the shortest wavelength of a pulse, then the mesh will leak. IMHO, you are much better off storing spare disconnected radios, computers, and automobile electronic ignition components wrapped in aluminum foil and/or stored in steel ammo cans. This approach is essentially foolproof, and less expensive in the long run. A side benefit is that it will also provide spare/redundant electronics for other non-EMP disaster situations.

Any corrections, differing opinions, or suggestions on large scale Faraday cage construction, folks? (I appreciate your counsel. 12,000 heads are better than one!)

As for Civil Defense rate/survey meters: Any meters from the early 1960s (which is when most of them were made) will have have discrete transistor technology that should be immune to all but the most intense and localized EMP. (Read: If they were affected, then you’d be inside the blast radius and would probably killed instantly.) It is only later microcircuit (“chip”) technology that is vulnerable to EMP. In general, the smaller the gate size, the more vulnerable a microcircuit is to EMP. (Hence, the latest chips with sub-micron dimension gates are quite vulnerable.) In the event of EMP, you can kiss your Pentium chip PC goodbye.

Three Letters Re: The Ethanol Debate

James,
Great site. Keep up the great work. Here are two interesting links about the market dominance of ethanol in Brazil: CBS News and Washington Post.
Brazil plans to be energy independent by next year, based on conversion of sugar cane to ethanol.
In comparison, the ethanol extracted from corn yields only about 15 to 25 percent more fuel than the fossil fuels that were used to produce it. In Brazil, according to industry studies, the sugar-based ethanol yields about 830 percent more. Sugar cane may not the answer here in the US, but it does show what can happen when an entire country focuses on becoming energy dependent. Cheers, – Rookie in VA

 

Mr. Rawles
I come from ethanol country. There has not been an increase in corn planting to provide fuel for the ethanol plants that are springing up nearby. The broken farm subsidy system that in years past has had field corn rotting on the ground is also funding the ethanol process. These studies that show the amount of energy used to produce ethanol are not pointing out that we are not using new production corn to produce ethanol. The production energy(most of it anyway) will already be used up as farmers in this country continue to over-produce feed corn. Corn that has been used to produce ethanol can also be used for feed. Assuming Washington is not interested in fixing the subsidy system shouldn’t we be doing our best to get the most out of our money? By producing ethanol we are getting more usage out of each bushel of corn.

 

Hello again,
As I was reading Jim’s letter regarding alternative fuels I noticed him discussing biodiesel and its inadequacy for large scale usage. I believe he is mistaken. And Tim P’s letter is incorrect in that biodiesel currently sells for about the same price as regular diesel. And, at least for now, you get a tax break for using it.

My father is the Director of Maintenance at a Transit Authority in the Midwestern United States. With the rise in fuel costs, he has done a good deal of research into the matter. During the summer months, every bus they have on the streets runs on 100% biodiesel. During spring and fall they go to 70% and then down to 20-30% during winter because it does tend to cloud up. That’s 327 buses and 12,956,000 or so street miles every year. 3,000,000 or so miles on 100 % Biodiesel. Almost 13 million on some sort of mixture. At the very least that could prolong things for a while. That is in no way a little utilization.

As far as biodiesel’s petroleum use/output ratio, I don’t know for sure. It is worth considering that Proctor and Gamble produces soy biodiesel as a BYPRODUCT of making soap, cosmetics, etc. They use it to produce Olestra (the fat replacement oil for cooking chips etc.) They refine/distil soy to get glycerin for soap (P&G makes a little soap) and other goods and soy biodiesel is left over.

Could we then use biodiesel to distil more soy to get more soap/ biodiesel at an efficient rate? I don’t know, but I would think it merits consideration. – DD

Odds ‘n Sods:

Randy in Utah mentioned to me that Dan’s Ammo currently has a great deal on brand new, unissued Hensoldt Z24 scopes with STANAG claw mounts, in the original military carry cases. These are $375 each, postage paid. Once this batch of Z24 scopes at Dan’s is gone, I’m fairly certain that they will jump back up to the normal market price of around $600 each.

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Cliff C. alerted us to this article: IBM and Tekvet team to remotely track and monitor the health of millions of cattle. One would hope that this doesn’t get integrated with the NAIS program or applied to more nefarious purposes…

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Reader “Alfie Omega” reminded us that there are a lot of great articles on photovoltaics, wind power and micro-hydro, all available for free download at the Home Power magazine web site. They also have useful Glossary, and their Renewable Energy Resources Directory is a great way to find alternate energy system supplier that is local to your area. Needless to say, I also recommend subscribing to Home Power magazine.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood – the things that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.- Theodore Roosevelt

Prussian Blue for Radioactive Isotope Exposure by P.H.

Prussian Blue (“PB”) is a safe treatment for ingested radioactive isotopes that a person may have been exposed to from a dirty bomb or nuclear explosion. It does not protect against radiation, nor treat radiation sickness (there are supplement and drugs that help, see below.) It does not protect against all known radioactive substances (i.e., you would want to take Potassium Iodide (KI) as well to protect against radioactive iodine from a nuclear explosion.) It isn’t a substitute for evacuating out of the path of fallout, or for taking shelter from fallout in a protected place. It’s just one useful tool in the toolbox should you and your family be exposed to airborne particles of radioactive elements. And it can happen: the number of countries with nuclear programs is growing every year, there are nuclear reactor accidents (check a map for the reactors upwind of your home), and we often hear about terrorists wanting to make “dirty bombs” that spread radioactive material around.

Unfortunately, in spite of the government’s encouragement to produce Prussian Blue (PB) pills for the public, it’s not available yet in pill form. This means that if anybody wants this protection they’re going to have to make the pills themselves – which, as it turns out, isn’t hard or expensive to do! Here’s the information you’ll need:

www.fda.gov
Med-countermeasures
Rad-incident-response
Internal
Course-brochure
Prussian-blue.pdf

Prussian Blue from this supplier is chemically pure. (I’m sure you could find other suppliers.)

MSDS showing it’s safe:
Coleparmer.com
Canadagazette.gc.ca
“Approximately 800 cosmetic products, including 627 deodorants, contain this substance identified as C.I. 77510. In the United States, the use of Ferric Ferrocyanide is permitted to colour externally applied drugs, including those for use in the area of the eye. In addition, Ferric Ferrocyanide is recognized to be a safe and effective internal treatment for thallium poisoning. This recommendation provides further indication of the safety of this compound.” – From the Wikipedia.

How to put it in capsules (one sample supplier, your local health food store should have these supplies.)

When you’re putting it into capsules just realize that it’s a very fine powder. One little puff of wind can leave your kitchen table with a coating of blue! It would probably be best to fill your capsules in the garage, or at least put out newspapers to catch any dust that gets away from you. Wear vinyl gloves or you’ll have blue cuticles for a while…

The likelihood that you’ll ever need this is pretty small, but if you’ve ever bought Potassium Iodide tablets you should consider buying this as well – and it’s cheap! Be sure to follow the dosing instructions at the aforementioned web sites from orau.gov!

Here is some good additional information about nuclear reactors and fallout paths courtesy of Nitro-Pak.

As you may notice, the CDC .pdf file on Prussian Blue advises people to not treat themselves with the artist’s pigment. [Prussian Blue, a.k.a. Preußisch Blau or Berliner Blau.] So a little observation and disclaimer may be in order:

1. Under ordinary circumstances, if a person were contaminated with radioactive isotopes the prudent thing to do would be to go directly to a hospital emergency room to be treated by a doctor for the problem. (Well, decontaminate first…) Don’t treat yourself!

2. In a regional or national disaster, local medical resources will be quickly overwhelmed and persons contaminated with radiation are not going to be able to be treated because there won’t be enough to go around, or because access to advanced health care will be impractical or impossible.

3. The information at the links I provided is specific enough for a layman in a disaster to easily administer Prussian Blue in a safe manner.

4. It’s possible that the PB that has been packaged for medicinal use is in some fancy enteric coated capsule or otherwise more suitable for treatment. And there’s no arguing with the fact that artist’s PB was not intended to be used to treat this medical condition. However, after considerable research I’m convinced that it can and will adequately treat certain radioisotope contamination.

5. Safe administration basically boils down to obtaining a pure supply in the first place. Some art supply places will not have pure pigments (note: the treatment is with pure PB powdered pigment – not with paint containing PB!). Shop around if you’re not sure.

6. The observant person reading through all of the links will discover that Potassium Iodide and Prussian Blue are only good for treating ingestion of certain radioisotopes. If the contamination included other radioactive elements, then additional treatments with specialized drugs requiring injections or inhalation therapy will be necessary. But those drugs require a prescription and are available only through the medical profession’s gateway – KI and PB are readily available and safe for laypersons to use, and will not harm the person even if there is no contamination.

God forbid we’ll ever need to actually take Prussian Blue, but if we do, the odds are very good that the government is not going to have enough to go around, or to start you on a treatment right away.

JWR Adds: Pharmaceutically manufactured KI tablets are available from a number of reputable Internet vendors, including JRH Enterprises, Ready Made Resources, Safe Castle, Nitro-Pak, and KI4U. In this post-9/11 era, it is impossible to predict when either a sub-critical radioactive dirty bomb or a low yield fission bomb will be touched off upwind from you–by some terrorist or by a rogue state. Take the time to study nuclear effects protection. At the very minimum buy a dosimeter, a rate meter, and some KI. Make NBC preparedness part of your family’s integrated preparedness plan. Following Richard Fleetwood’s guidelines, upgrade your retreat basement to fallout shelter specs. Or, if your home lacks a basement, build a root cellar near your house that doubles as a fallout shelter. There are lots of free resources available from The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, and the Surviving The Day After Discussion Forum. Also be sure to get a copy of Nuclear War Survival Skills –a free downloadable book .(Print out a hard copy, or just mail order a bound hard copy.)

Odds ‘n Sods:

I just finished watching a review copy of Larry Wick’s DVD: Split Second Survival: First Strike. It teaches some truly no-nonsense practical self defense. Highly recommended! It emphasizes unarmed defense, and devastating defense techniques with always close-at-hand objects such as pocket combs and ballpoint pens. I’ll post some detailed comments in a subsequent blog entry.

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SurvivalBlog reader “Flighter” recommends this US Army web site on water filtration. He notes: “It has an analysis of a variety of water purification filters and disinfection methods, all commercially available. It is interesting stuff.”

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The eighth case of BSE (“Mad Cow” disease) has been confirmed in Canada.

Note from JWR:

Today we present three thought provoking responses to my short article "Some ARM Twisting in the Near Future." The first of these is from David, our correspondent in Israel:

Three Letters Re: Some ARM Twisting in the Near Future

James,
I wanted to help explain some of the upside to general hyper-inflation. This current well managed hyper-inflation that has been rolling strong since about 1995 went first into the financial markets and then after the dot-com-9-11 went into the overheated housing market,. This inflation is a result of the massive infusion of dollars through fractional reserve bank financing creating new money by loaning out non-existent money.
We can likely expect the dollar value of homes to not drop too far if this alleged bubble pops as the fed much like in Australia and the UK central banks try to keep the money supply inflating at the rate of an average home.
This is not yet a general price inflation. Adjustable rate mortgage holders look to see if there is a limit on your interest rate you will not likely be able to keep up with increased payments in any case.
Once the general inflation hits and the dollar (and other currencies at the same time) drop like stones people will be surprised to find themselves paying off [fixed rate] 30 year mortgages with a few months of wages. The trick to this is a person has to find an income to support even these easy payments, a concurrent deflation may also strike the economy forcing wages down versus commodities, real estate, and imported items. In biz school you would learn that an unexpected inflation acts to transfer wealth. While
it is usually a central bank trying to shake off national debt a person with the right debt structure and little or no currency based savings can derive
benefit from this transfer.
Be aware financial conditions have never been as bad as they are in all of world history, [so] plan for the change now. We are about to witness history in a big way. Most nations after a massive inflation lop off a few zeros rename the currency (For example the “NEW” Israeli Shekels.) Be aware that there has been significant amounts of
scholarly work on a near term Euro type currency merger in North America (Amero). Kol Tov. – David in Israel

 

Mr. Rawles:
One thing often overlooked is whether the mortgage is a recourse, or non-recourse loan. Most first mortgages are “Non-recourse” loans – meaning that if you lose the house and the bank sells it, the foreclosed party is NOT responsible for the difference between the mortgage value and sale price if less.

However, with most loans over 100% of the equity (U.S. Bank was selling 125% home equity lines back in 1999.), or any Home Equity Credit Lines – if the house is foreclosed, and the house sells for less than the amount owed on the note, the bank has full recourse to go after the borrower for the difference between note amount and sale price.

Same as if you have a car loan, and you total the car for instance. Most insurance policies will pay market value for the car – and if you owe the finance company more than the market value, you are on the hook for the difference. That is a recourse loan, and most loans are just that, with the exception of first mortgages up to 100% of equity. State laws differ somewhat, but in general, that is the rule nationally.

A lot of folks may try to walk away, and are going to wish they had read the fine print at closing. The bankers are ALWAYS going to act to cover themselves. My folks were raised during the Depression, and my Mother would reach out from beyond the grave if I had EVER bought a house with an ARM, or didn’t pay off the debt as quickly as possible. Going to be a lot of financial bloodletting in the next 5 years. In the 80s it was commercial property, and now residential. Amazing how quickly we forget. And with the tighter Bankruptcy Code, a lot of folks are going to have much longer relationships with their bankers than they ever thought they would. Love the site! – Sawbuck in Virginia

 

Dear Jim:
Rather than a balloon [bursting], I think [the housing market collapse] will be more like a series of avalanches, small at first, but growing each time. We are seeing this now with the “inventory” of homes for sale at an all time high. The entire market sector has slowed substantially from the heated years of growth, driven in large part by low interest rates.

Remember, in many of these cases, the bank will be OK with the 1st mortgage, is these insane 2nd and 3rd ones that will be the real problem. Still many banks over-extended I suspect, and the FDIC is too big to save.

Jim check this out – and go to the end to see that bad and the good. Note how TX is so low on the scale, interesting.

CA, FL, NY – are of course the problem areas. – Rourke

Letter Re: Canned Coffee Beans

Mr. Rawles:

The way to store coffee long-term is by purchasing green beans and roasting them yourself as you need them. Green beans (whole beans) stay “fresh” for up to a year in a normal container, like a tin or glass jar or foil lined bag. If you completely seal them off from light and oxygen and maybe even nitrogen purge them then they should stay “fresh” indefinitely, well for several years anyway. See the Terroir site below for how they store their green beans.
The thing about roasting coffee beans is that they go stale within two weeks after roasting. There really isn’t anything you can do about it either. Doing all the normal long term storage things only delays the inevitable for a little while, maybe a month or two beyond the normal
two weeks. And I do mean all things, freezing, nitrogen purging, metal airtight containers, vacuum sealing, none of it works all that well. The roasted beans will go stale faster than you want, guaranteed.
Now for a definition of stale coffee. Most Americans are used to coffee purchased at a grocery store, and most restaurants usually serve the same bad coffee made from stale beans. Any coffee (beans or pre-ground) sold by a grocery store is going to be stale by default. The large coffee companies store their roasted beans for weeks before
they ever see the inside of a retail outlet. Stale, stale, stale.
Most Americans are used to drinking coffee made from stale beans. Another thing about grocery store coffee, it’s usually pre-ground. Ground coffee goes stale about twenty minutes after it comes out of the grinder. Storing ground coffee is even more of a losing proposition than storing whole roasted beans. Don’t even think about
it. You might as well gather up some sawdust, put some food coloring on it and put it in a tin can.
How can you tell whether the roasted coffee beans are stale or not? Smell them. Stale beans smell different than freshly roasted beans. If you don’t believe me please find a local roaster or order some fresh beans over the web. Compare the beans with the known recent roast date to some known stale beans or just wait for the freshly
roasted beans to go stale themselves. You will smell the difference. You will taste the difference.
If you already have a taste for stale beans then don’t even worry about long term storage. Just use whatever crosses your path because you won’t taste the difference. Store you coffee any way you want because it’s stale anyway. Long term, short term, it’s all the same to someone that likes stale beans. Don’t even worry about it. It’s
not worth the time and effort to ensure fresh beans if you like stale beans. How do you tell whether you like stale beans? If you really like any coffee you buy at the grocery store then you like stale beans. If you like coffee that’s been sitting out on the hotplate of the coffee maker for more than fifteen minutes then it doesn’t matter
whether you use fresh beans or not.
Now about Illy. They are okay as long as you buy the whole beans and grind them yourself. As far as buying roasted beans for long term storage you can’t do much better than Illy. Just know that long term for roasted beans is not long term for most other dry consumables. Roasted coffee beans out-gas CO2 (carbon dioxide) , a pretty large
quantity of it too. It is why bags of coffee have check valves in them to let the gas out so the bag won’t burst. As the beans out-gas the gas also takes other molecules with it, molecules that make up the flavor of the coffee bean. The heavier oils of the beans also travel to the exterior of the bean. Upon exposure to the air these oils (not really oils but… ) either evaporate or change chemically and detrimentally affect the flavor of the coffee made from those beans. Where do you buy green beans?
Sweet Marias.
There are probably others but Sweet Maria’s sell beans to the home roaster in smaller quantities than you would be able to get from wholesale coffee merchants.
There’s lots information at Sweet Maria’s if you dig for it. All or most of what I’ve told you here can be confirmed there. You could even send an email to them yourself and I’m sure they would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
Some other links you may find useful.
Coffee Geek
alt.coffee
Terroir Coffee
Pan Roasting
There’s more to good coffee than getting freshly roasted beans but I only wanted to answer your query about long term storage. Hope this has been helpful. – A.P.

Letter Re: Preparedness-Oriented Homeschooling Curriculum

Hello Rawles Family,
We have been viewing your site for a few months after reading “Patriots” (loved it!) and have a suggested resource for other families.

We are long term veteran homeschooling family, self sufficiency oriented, husband former military (Viet Nam), ordained ministers who choose to develop house church networks in view of the likely future. We currently reside in upper northwest Montana after being in other regions gaining broad experience.

We wrote a preparedness homeschooling curriculum based on Swiss Family Robinson and a sequel based on Robinson Crusoe. The first year builds academics around family teamwork and the second teaches independent decision making and leadership. It is designed for all ages toddler through adult to learn together. Please view our web site at: www.prepareandpray.com for more info. We have spoken at many state homeschool conventions, been published in many homeschool magazines and have an excellent online review posted at www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com

In all our awareness of current world events it is vital that our children be trained NOW while there is still time. Science can be learned by gardening, raising small livestock, using levers and pulleys doing real work, and outdoorsmanship; history can be learned by studying heroes of the faith and seasons of difficulty and triumph; health is learned with first aid and nutrition, plagues, and purity.We waste no time, money, or energy but encourage families to strongly focus for a year or two giving children skills that will last a lifetime and likely save their lives in the future. This is done vicariously through good children’s literature to avoid any impartation of fear. We train families to become overcomers, not victims.

In His Service, – Jim and Robin Brashear, Overcomers Books and Supplies

Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson sent a link for this interesting piece of ordnance. Too bad about that pesky $200 transfer tax. OBTW, you gotta love the picture of that WECSOGed fifth wheel trailer hitch mount. A also BTW, I woudln’t be surprised to see one of these Anzio 20mm rifles show up in one of Mike’s upcoming novels.

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From NewsTarget: The top ten things food companies don’t want you to know.

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Market Watch: The United States is headed for a recession that will be “much nastier, deeper and more protracted” than the 2001 recession.

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SurvivalBlog reader Michael in England mentioned that there is currently an interesting thread over at the FALFiles about automobile “black box” technology.

Note from JWR:

I just added some goodies that I imported from Finland to my Mail Order Catalog, including an original Finnish Defense Force Valmet M62 field carrying case, a Valmet M62 brass catcher, and a small batch of original Valmet M62 “green waffle” magazines with lanyard loops. (These will fit other AKs chambered in 7.62×39.)

Some ARM Twisting in the Near Future

The mainstream media finally is starting to report on the nascent U.S. real estate collapse. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that perhaps as much as a half trillion dollars worth of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) in the U.S. will be “reset” in the coming year. The article mentions: “To head off potential problems, the largest mortgage originator in the United States, Countrywide Home Loans, has begun sending out letters to thousands of borrowers who have been making only the minimum payments on the company’s popular PayOption adjustable-rate mortgages. The letters explain that ‘this is an early message to alert you that, based on your current payment trends and potential future interest rate changes, the monthly payment you will be required to pay may increase significantly.'”

Given the huge number of ARM loans that were issued to anyone with little more than a paycheck and a pulse during the past three years, I shudder to think what the mortgage default rate will be in ’07 , ’08, and ’09. Mortgage defaults will mean lot of houses will be coming back on the market. And consider that the unsold house inventory already burgeoning. Houses prices are bound to just plain collapse in overvalued markets like Phoenix and San Diego. Once people are “upside down” in their mortgages (owing more on the principal of the mortgage than the house’s new market value), I predict that some of them will turn in their keys to the bank and just walk away from their houses. Mark my words.