faraday cages in kingdom of saud?

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In sites un-named by my source, but within Kingdom of Saud,

lots of questions about CME and exposed electronic devices in large crates inside cargo containers.

Will CME cause problems with circuit boards in boxes, in crates, in shipping containers?
Could a Faraday cage protect them if at risk? Can you effectively ground a largish Faraday cage to sand?

My source say that TB2000 is monitored by SaudTPTB. (also asking in IEEE/Science forums). They need to know. On site opinions apparently vary.

Also informs that field reports are being classified, restricted and 'stored' (in nearest shredder?)

Legit answers appreciated by my friend. He is on the hook for this gear. Suspect he is refering to replacement parts based on previous conversations.



-- pliney the younger (pliney@puget.sound.foggy), February 18, 2000

Answers

---depends on the size of the CME. the containers themselves, being somewhat tight and metallic, are "almost" a faraday cage. Being new parts, in sealed containers, it seems like he would have recourse all the way back to the manufacturer if they were discovered "defective". --good luck to him and ALL of us, if this CME Scheduled to hit tomorrow is severe. I know I'm staying inside as much as possible, and will be following the "impact" time.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 18, 2000.

PLINEY:

Being a chronic doomer all my life, back in '85 I built Faraday cages for all my amateur radio gear. At the time the paranoia focussed on EMP from high altitude neutron bomb detonation. I don't know how the EMP threat correlates with the CME threat on a quantitative basis, but if MY replacement parts were sitting in a Saudi depot on top of sand I would do the following: 1) run the ground lead from the cages far enough down into the sand to reach the level where the moisture is (which is the source for the oases' water too), or 2) pack up all the crates and move them to a depot on the Gulf shores, where grounding to moisture is easy.

BTW, LOVE your posts,

Bill

-- William J. Schenker, MD (wjs@linkfast.net), February 18, 2000.


Bill,
Thanks. My friend's issue with the CME is that there is not enough time to get to area where grounding to water is possible.

Unless there are better suggestions, my idea of sinking the ground into the macadam probably offers best grounding potential.

hope there is enough moisture trapped under roadway to do the job if SA is in impact area.



-- pliney the younger (pliney@puget.sound.foggy), February 18, 2000.


I would suggest sir. That your problemmight be helped. If you will drive as long a ground rod into the sand. Then throghly WET the ground all around the grounding rod with water......( a better word dscription is SOAK the ground -sand with water).

"As for me...I shall finish the Game"!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), February 18, 2000.


Hi PtY,

A CME is nothing like an EMP from the bomb. An EMP is a really fast, short, low energy wavefront (pulse) that causes destruction of semiconductors via excessively high voltages. A CME creates a large geomagnetic storm that induces continuous high voltages in long wires (but voltages lower than EMP in most cases). Anything connected to these wires could be damaged.

In general, if electronic devices aren't plugged into long wires, a CME is nothing to worry about. But if you have electronics plugged into an outlet *without a surge protector or UPS,* there might be a problem. The biggest problems from CME's arise with long distance, high voltage power lines and long antennas.

-- Dean -- from (almost) Duh Moyn (dtmiller@midiowa.net), February 18, 2000.



Dean, are you suggesting that a long grounding rod may actually INTENSIFY the damage then in this case? Please elaborate.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 19, 2000.

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