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Copyright 1999 2000
2001 Web Author: Glen A. Williamson webmaster@williamson-labs.com
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High Altitude Thermo-Nuclear Shots Blind RADARs and Interrupt Communications.
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Seen from Kwajalein, Atoll 1500
mi away.
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Still Champion, the Mighty Vacuum
Tube.
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Nature's Neon
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The Humble Transistor didn't stand a chance.
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| Anecdotes: |
| Right after WWII, during one Nevada test, circuit breakers, 90 miles
away, were tripped; thus giving early hints of EMP. |
| In
the 1964 presidential election, Johnson ver Goldwater, there was a campaign
issue of U.S. preparedness against the U.S.S.R. Nuclear threat. The Goldwater
side asserted that we were vulnerable to EMP. The Administration claimed
there was no such thing as EMP. At the same time, the IEE's (IEEE) technical
journal, Spectrum, just happen to publish an article, written by several
Bell Labs engineers, on how to harden telephone communications systems
against EMP.
The article showed how a repeater building could be constructed using
interconnected conductors in the building's construction such that they
acted as a "squirrel cage rotor" as in an A.C. motor--a shorted
turn; this was covered by continuous copper Faraday
shielding, allowing no unexposed openings. Additionally, there were buried
triple shielded coax conduits coming and going from the building, with
four #8 copper cables buried adjacent to the conduits.
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In point of fact, the high altitude blast is the most damaging to electronic
devices, as well as, communications. The faster the derivative (di-dt)
of the PULSE, the more energetic the resultant induced field (wave).
There are two possible mechanisms that can destroy any semiconductor:
1) Excessive current, causing melting of the device junctions.
2) Reverse voltages, e.g., for a device that runs with a positive supply,
if a negative voltage is applied, the junction is easily ruptured, thus
causing instant failure. This mechanism requires significantly less energy
to cause damage.
It is fair to say that both mechanisms are at work in an EMP environment.
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| I don't remember
hearing of anything happening on Kwaj as a result of the shots. Of course,
all of the technical facilities there were heavily shielded. Knowing that
there were artifacts in Hawaii, I am surprised we didn't experience the
same... |
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Description:
ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP)
is produced by nuclear explosions at high altitudes,
High-altitude EMP, or HEMP. |
Table 2-2. EMP waveform summary
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Type
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Peak Amplitude
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Timeframe
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| HEMP |
50 kV/m
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Few nsec to 200 nsec
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| Surface-burst |
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Source region
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1 MV/m
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Few nsec to 1 microsec
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10 kV/m
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1 microsec to 0.1 sec
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Radiated region
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1 microsec to 100 microsec
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| Air-burst |
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Source region
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Similar to surface-burst
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Radiated region
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300 V/m at 5 km, typical (highly dependent on HOB)
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10 nanosec to 5 microsec
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| SGEMP |
100 kV/m
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Few nanosec to 100 nanosec |
| MHn-EMp |
30 V/km
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0.1 sec to 100 sec |
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..
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| It was about 21:00 Kwajalein time, and I was just leaving an outdoor
movie. All of a sudden there was a flash--like someone had just taken a
picture. I looked around, but there were no cameras. Than I heard several
people say that the "Johnston Shot" was scheduled for tonight.
I looked up in the eastern sky-- toward Johnston, Island about 1500
miles away --and there, high in the sky, was the beginning of a thin Arc
of very bright White light. It appeared in
the shape of a rainbow, except it didn't span from horizon to horizon.
The impression was that the light was somehow being shaped by the Earth's
curvature, i.e., reflecting off the ocean's surface.
After about ten to fifteen minutes it reached its brightest.
During this time I walked to the Navy's Ham Shack--KX6BU
where a buddy of mine--Bill Campbell, W5UHF had been running phone patches
back to the States.
He said that while he was talking to a "regular on twenty" [meters], all
of a sudden there was a flash, and the band instantly went DEAD! "No signals
& no noise." "It was as if the receiver had been turned OFF!"
By the time I arrived (~20 to 30 minutes), the "band" was starting to
return. Except: instead of rapid fading-- QSB, there was rapid "worbling"--
a definite aural frequency shifting." It was as if someone were wiggling
the tuning knob (PTO) of the Collins 32 S-1 SSB
receiver. I have never--before, nor since-- heard such a sound. I concluded
that it had to be Doppler shifting of the ~ 14.300 MHz signals, caused--
I assumed --by the ThermoNuclear (>1 Megaton) Induced Ionospheric
Turbulence.
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Copyright 1999 2000
2001 2002 Web Author: Glen A. Williamson webmaster@williamson-labs.com
Suggestions are Solicited, P l e a s e !
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LINKS:
U.S.
Army EMP document
fas.org/.../emp
Discussion
of EMP by Deputy Director DSWA
Lightning
Protection
Map of Islands
Kwajalein Link
Kwaj Missles Link
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