Thread: EMP Proof Box
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Old 05-14-2011, 00:56   #9
perdurabo
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Pacific Northwest
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Harsey View Post
Question after my cursory search didn't come up with much...

Does anyone know of an EMP proof box that a laptop would fit in?

I'm asking on behalf of friend who is a radio station manager.
Does he require EMP shielding, or EMR shielding (ala Faraday & TEMPEST?). In other words, is he trying to protect the equipment from an electromagnetic pulse, as from a nuclear blast, or simply shield the equipment from eletromagnetic radiation (eg. radio waves)?

For EMP applications, I wouldn't trust anything but "mil spec" (aka surplus) equipment. From my military experience, it usually involves several layers of copper screening, each layer separated by a thin layer of non-conductive material (such as fiberglass sheeting). He could probably manufacture this himself, but without proper testing gear, who knows if it will be sufficient.

For EMR applications, a single layer of copper screening should be good enough. If you have the bucks, look up military surplus faraday junk or TEMPEST junk (which does make it out in public, for a pretty penny).

Edit: I'm going off on a atanget here, but if he's looking to shield it for a SHTF scenario, I would ask him to re-evaluate why he's wanting to nuke harden a laptop. It'd be much easier to either print out the required data and store that, or store it on a digital medium (a few copies on thumbdrives) and shield those. In a SHTF scenario, there'll still be plenty of usable mobile computing equipment around.

Preppers tend to overthink scenarios, it kind of reminds me of a joke in crypto circles: http://xkcd.com/538/

Last edited by perdurabo; 05-14-2011 at 01:14. Reason: Rambling
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