NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: CELNAV .pdf file
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Dec 25, 21:33 -0500
From: Jared Sherman
Date: 2003 Dec 25, 21:33 -0500
Fred-Not just knock it, but it destroys the electonics and melts the circuit traces if the overload is sufficient. In the days after WW2 when the US was still playing with aerial bomb tests, they did one that apparently generated enough EMP to set off every burglar alarm (the long trace wiring acts as a nice antenna) in Honolulu. I don't remember the details, only the reference to a 'practical test' of EMP accidentally happening. There are discussions you can find on the web about setting off EMP bombs (designed to create an EMP burst only, or mainly) and you'll find plenty of other references about it. But an EMP blast close enough to fry your GPS receiver is of no consequence...it will be a realtively local event with plenty of other, ah, consequences. For EMP to be a major issue it would have to be EMP bursts near the satellites themselves. Since they are specially hardened, relatively inaccessible (so far) and there are spares in orbit and on the ground... Not a real problem. (Like I said, if my GPS goes down because the system has been hit, I think I'll have other larger worries. Like food, water, and safe harbor.)