Will an MCI bus act as a faraday cage?

Oregonconversion · December 30, 2011, 02:07:48 AM

Does anyone know if a bus will act as a faraday cage for protecting electronics from an EMP or solar storm?

Im guessing no, because of the windows. I am just looking for some thoughts about this topic.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/274395/20111230/solar-storm-expected-worsen-2012.htm

Jeremy · December 30, 2011, 05:08:37 AM

The windows probably help - at least, Faraday cages are usually built of mesh rather than with solid walls. Inside a car (or a bus) is a very good place to be in a lightning storm - but some kind of mythical EMP strike? Who knows. Find a survivalist wearing a tin foil hat and ask him. (Not meaning to be flippant, but I think a magnetic storm in the atmosphere and an Electromagnetic Pulse hitting something like a bus are two fundamentally different things).

Jeremy

Oregonconversion · December 30, 2011, 09:18:15 AM

Sure they are different , but can be protected the same way.

paulrobie · December 30, 2011, 10:33:33 AM

Quote from: Jeremy on December 30, 2011, 05:08:37 AM
The windows probably help - at least, Faraday cages are usually built of mesh rather than with solid walls. Inside a car (or a bus) is a very good place to be in a lightning storm - but some kind of mythical EMP strike? Who knows. Find a survivalist wearing a tin foil hat and ask him. (Not meaning to be flippant, but I think a magnetic storm in the atmosphere and an Electromagnetic Pulse hitting something like a bus are two fundamentally different things).

Jeremy

Sooooo... survivalists wear tin foil hats? Interesting.

Jeremy · December 30, 2011, 10:52:17 AM

Walter's Survival Tips - Tin Foil Hats

HB of CJ · December 30, 2011, 12:31:09 PM

Your coach as a Faraday cage? Dunno. Probably not. As an EMP repeller--resister? Nope. The very short, very powerful spike (thousands of times worserer than a lightning strike) will get in thru the windows and stuff. As a CME resister? Probably to some degree---effectiveness unknown. Sosss...except for all the dunnos, nopes, worserers and unknowns....everything is hunky-dorry. HB of CJ (old coot)

Kwajdiver · December 30, 2011, 12:56:13 PM

The widows would have to be covered with a fine metal mesh or perforated sheet metal. All holes would have to be smaller than radiation's wavelength that you are trying to protect from. Oh yes! A really good grounding system is a must.

You would want an environment devoid of electromagnetic interference such as we use within a screen room. Screen rooms are design to block out all external electromagnetic fields and are grounded to dissipate any electric currents.

Sooo, do you wish to make your bus a large screen room?

Bill

Lee Bradley · December 30, 2011, 01:07:28 PM

A Faraday suit in action.

Tesla Coil Show

bevans6 · December 30, 2011, 01:16:11 PM

Back in the early days of my career I worked with the government and military in Ottawa setting up a Tempest secure communications room. From what I recall the apertures in the mesh need to be of a particular size to control the frequency range you are worried about, so no, I don't think a bus will be a great faraday cage. Does your cell phone work inside the bus? if it does, the bus is pretty leaky.

Musicians love EMP's. The reason high quality vacuum tubes are still available for us to run in our vintage blackface Fenders is that tubes are highly resistant to EMP. The tubes, for the paranoid amoung us, come from Russia...

Brian

Nusa · December 30, 2011, 05:43:44 PM

Most of you already own a small Faraday cage, more commonly known as the "Microwave". If you were to place your cell phone inside the microwave, your phone would have no signal. I'd unplug the microwave for that experiment, as accidentally turning it on will destroy the phone.

chev49 · December 31, 2011, 08:48:53 AM

guess from the digresssssion in this post that an emp strike while being in the bus will turn us into microwave popcorn..

gcyeaw · January 01, 2012, 01:07:10 PM

As far as the original question, "Would my bus act as a Faraday cage"--I'd be shocked if it didn't

Nusa · January 06, 2012, 02:57:04 PM

Quote from: gcyeaw on January 01, 2012, 01:07:10 PM
As far as the original question, "Would my bus act as a Faraday cage"--I'd be shocked if it didn't

No, it will give minimal protection, unless you have proper metallic screening on all the openings, such as windows, vents, and other openings to the areas needing protection.

Humans don't need EMP protection, unless they depend on life-support electronics. Ditto for drivetrains -- pre-electronic ones likely need no protection. It's usually easier to just shield the electronics themselves, if they're valuable enough or important enough to justify the effort. It's often cheaper to just carry backups of any truly essential devices in closed metal containers.

The younger generations would disagree, but I wouldn't classify a phone as essential. There's not much point in having a phone survive an event that destroys all the cell-phone towers.

Here's a good overview page on the subject:

Quotehttp://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/rp/factsheets/factsheets-htm/fs41elecpuls.htm

buswarrior · January 06, 2012, 04:47:56 PM

I liked the play on words!

shocked.... hahahahaha

happy coaching!
buswarrior

Nusa · January 07, 2012, 08:12:58 PM

Hah, I have to admit I missed the joke there.