FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats:
from
http://www.house.gov/
on
August 12, 2004
Website:
http://www.house.gov/hasc/openingstatementsandpressreleases/108thcongress/04-07-22emp.pdf
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Federal Commission to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats:
Hello,
Take a look at the editorial, "Mother of All Blackouts", in today's Wall Street Journal (August 12, 2004). The eHam members
should consider this subject.
It discusses the just released report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)
Attack. This report addresses the basic vulnerability of America's electronic infrastructure to this silent and comprehensive attack.
The text of the report of the Commission is available at the URL listed below. It is a 62-page pdf file.
http://www.house.gov/hasc/openingstatementsandpressreleases/108thcongress/04-07-22emp.pdf
73, Nickolaus E. Leggett, N3NL
Petitioner, with Donald J. Schellhardt esquire, to the FCC on EMP attack shielding (Dockets RM-10330 and RM-5528)
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
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FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats
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by W8AD on August 12, 2004
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Strange--there seems to be nothing new under the sun. Wonder why this is treated as a "new" report.
The original comprehensive testing on this was done in 1985 in a White House Communications document titled TIB 85-10 assessing EMP damage to electronic communications equipment. As a result of this work, we changed the gaseous content in the ARC-PLUG cartridges of the Transi-Trap coax surge protectors to conform to this testing.
It was necessary so the devices would respond to the super fast rise time of an EMP pulse, compared to the comparitively slower rise time of a lightning type surge pulse (IEEE 25 kV/usec).
This is not a commercial. It is simply a statement that the government spent a lot of money on this, as did the industry, many years ago. Makes you wonder if the agencies talk to each other?
Don, W8AD, Alpha Delta Communications, Inc.
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FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats
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by L1D on August 12, 2004
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Lets hope they are planning on testing this in the same place BPL is being evaluated.
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by AE6IP on August 13, 2004
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Don,
This report looks like a pretty classic example of make-work. Someone said "ohmygod EMP what'll we do?" and this report got written.
If you sum it all up, it says "Look, electronics and power are suseptable to EMP. We should make sure no EMP happens; but in case we can't, we should make the infrastructure more robust. But don't ask us how."
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FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats
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by N3NL on August 13, 2004
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Hello,
This report was from a special commission set up by
Congress to study the Electromagnetic Pulse threat.
This report was released by that Congressional
commission in late July 2004.
It seems to me that the subject of EMP resistant
circuits and EMP shielding/bypassing is a useful
area for amateur radio inventions. There are a lot
of things that can be done in this area of technology.
73, Nickolaus E. Leggett, N3NL
U.S. Patent # 6,771,935 wireless bus
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by AE6IP on August 13, 2004
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The problem with considering EMP protection an area for amateur investigation is that the pros have been investigating (and solving) EMP problems for 50 years. There's not a lot of low hanging fruit left to be picked.
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by KG6PIR on August 13, 2004
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Yes we all know that the military has this problem fixed on all of there equipment the one thing everyone is over looking is the parts needed to make a radio EMP proof. As of last yeas only the government can buy lead shielded IC chips. This is how the government gets its equipment EMP proof.
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FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats
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by N3NL on August 13, 2004
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Why are hams restricted to just the "low hanging fruit"
in the EMP technology area? One can invent and
develop all sorts of technology if one is energetic
and willing to explore unusual approaches.
73, Nickolaus E. Leggett, N3NL
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Use of the Morphological Table in Inventing
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by N3NL on August 13, 2004
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One way to illuminate unusual approaches is to use
a morphological table to point our possibilities.
Refer to "The Morphological Table - An Invention
Generator" in the December 1987 issue of QEX
magazine.
73, Nickolaus E. Leggett, N3NL
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RE: Use of the Morphological Table in Inventing
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by AE6IP on August 13, 2004
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We all like to imagine the lone inventor quietly working away in a garage somewhere finding an approach that was overlooked by everyone else. It's a romantic iimage. We can see ourselves in it. It's possible in the early days of a technology.
Then the barrier to entry starts to creep up. As the technology matures the tools necessary to experiment in it become more expensive. The amount one needs to know in order to avoid wasting time going over old ground in the same way becomes more difficult to master. The level of success necessary for a 'proof of concept' implementation grows beyond the ability of an individual.
As with the individual, so with the group. Once the low hanging fruit is gone, and it tends to go early, the size of staff necessary to do the work grows, eventually out of reach.
Take, as an example, the light bulb. The person who first discovered that heating an element by passing electricity through it produces light was able to do so working alone. Edison, in "inventing the light bulb" relied on a large staff for a long period.
There *are* areas where amateur radio operators can still be inventive. HF digital protocols, for example. But toughening up the electric grid isn't one, nor, in my opinion, is "hardening" electronics -- which, these days, is more about semiconductor physics than anything else.
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FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Threats
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by N3NL on August 13, 2004
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The "low hanging fruit" model of inventing works if
one limits oneself to a linear view of progress.
The secret of inventing is to look along lines of
development that are not along the popular linear
route of development. The universe allows a huge
number of permutations and alternatives to be used.
This has occurred over and over in history. Indeed,
back in the nineteenth century the head of the Patent
Office stated confidently that everything of
importance had already been invented.
The basic notion of inventing something new is not
romantic. It is a logical process that human beings
can do. Sometimes the morphological table can be
helpful for finding new paths of development outside
of the beaten track.
73, Nickolaus E. Leggett, N3NL
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by AE6IP on August 14, 2004
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Um no. the 'low hanging fruit' model isn't based on a linear view of progress at all. Rather, it's based on an extensive study of the history of technology.
In the early days of a new technology, the space is explored pretty much at random, and anything that seems promising is tried. The low barrier to entry, coupled with the high reward for success, tends to bring many researchers with widely varied backgrounds to the problem. Many avenues are explored.
Over time, for reasons that are more often social than technical, a small number of lines of development come to dominate. As these lines of research develop, technology infrastructure to support them comes into place. This leads to the barrier to entry problem I described above.
Even if the garage inventor does come up with an alternative at this point, it isn't economically feasible for the alternative to compete, because it would have to overcome the infastructure investment in the main line of development.
But what typically happens to the vast majority of garage inventors is that, ignorant of the history of their area of research, they tend to spend most of their time re-exploring areas that were previously well explored and mined for all of their value.
You can actually see this effect in the pages of QST, with the period rediscovery of one form of antenna or another.
This does not mean there is no room for discovery and invention by amateurs, however. It merely means that amateurs wishing to invent are better off researching new and emerging technologies, and highly unlikely to contribute to perfection of long established technologies.
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by K6TLA on August 20, 2004
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If an EMP attack ever does take place it'll be the guys with the DX-100's and NC-300's that are still on the air.
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RE: FCC to Assess Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Thr
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by AE6IP on August 24, 2004
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> If an EMP attack ever does take place it'll be the
> guys with the DX-100's and NC-300's that are still
> on the air.
and still comparing colostomies.
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