Remember those tinfoil hats?
A lot of people used to laugh at those strangers who were afraid of aliens, robbing them of their brain waves.
The strangers used to make tinfoil hats to block these supposed efforts.
If you were caught wearing one of these hats, you were given a one-way ticket to the funny farm.
Faraday cages work on the same principle.
No, they are not cages designed to stop aliens or the government from robbing you of your brainwaves.
These are containers that divert electrical waves and keep the interior free from electronic signals.
If you build and use one of these Faraday cages, you won’t be seeing the inside of the funny farm.
They are good survival techniques that you may have already used and owned.
Some people say the modern car is a Faraday cage that keeps you protected when fallen power lines hit your vehicle.
Who invented the Faraday Cage?
This cage is not a recent invention.
The work started with Benjamin Franklin in the middle of the 18th century.
Mr. Franklin found that a cork ball lowered by a silk string was not electrified when lowered inside a metal can that was electrified.
But not much was done after that discovery until 80 years later when a British scientist named Micheal Faraday built on Mr. Franklin’s foundational work.
He did some self-testing to prove his theories correct.
In 1836, Mr. Faraday built a 12-foot box with a wood frame and glass supports.
Then he lined the interior side of the box with metal foil.
Once that was done, he stepped inside and blasted the room with electricity using an electrostatic generator.
While inside the box for two days, Faraday proved that electricity was a force and not a liquid.
And that the metal foil conducted the electricity around him while not letting any inside the box where he stayed for two days.
He measured everything with his electroscope.
This explanation tells you exactly what a Faraday box is.
It is a container made with metal that conducts electricity around the interior without letting any get through to the interior.
The important part of this experiment and subsequent work is that a Faraday cage or box has unlimited design possibilities.
The size and design are made to fit the purpose.
How to build a Faraday cage
As we said there is an unlimited number of design possibilities.
The size does not matter because the cage is very flexible.
You can make them small enough to protect your phone or large enough to protect a building.
To make one small enough to protect your phone, all you need is enough plastic to cover the phone, and then some aluminum foil.
Once you have wrapped the phone in the plastic and then covered the plastic with aluminum foil, you have built a small Faraday cage.
On a larger scale, hospitals create a Faraday cage out of the room that houses their MRI machines.
They surround the room with metal to conduct radio waves away from the room protecting the MRI from being interfered with by those radio waves.
To build your own Faraday cage, all you need is a metal that conducts electricity.
Those metals can be in the form of wire mesh, coils of electricity, or metal sheets.
The amount that you use will depend on the size of the Faraday cage you want to build.
Plus, while thicker metal is more protective, you can use metal as thin as aluminum foil to protect the interior of the cage.
The actual design is up to your creativity and innovative spirit.
There are no special construction instructions you need to follow except to make sure the interior is protected at all angles and sides.
One practical Faraday cage you may know well is your microwave.
The microwaves are trapped inside the oven and cannot escape.
That is why your food gets heated and you do not suffer from those microwaves.
If you are inside a metal Faraday cage while there is electricity bombarding the room, do not touch any metal that is connected to the exterior metal.
If you do, then you may get the shock of your life.
Check out this video on how to build A faraday Cage.
When making a Faraday cage, keep in mind that EMPs have a wide range, but not much power in the EHF band.
Why do you need a Faraday cage?
Maybe not right now but in times when disasters strike, and the SHTF, you may wish you had built one when you had the chance.
There are two very good reasons why you would want at least one room which is a Faraday cage.
#1. Electromagnetic damage
This will come in two forms.
The first will be solar flares which are large explosions on the sun’s surface.
These explosions create a lot of electromagnetic radiation and x-rays which can be damaging to your electronic equipment.
The good news is that such a solar flare has not hit the earth…yet.
The bad news is that scientists think more in terms of when, not if, it will happen.
The second source of this damage will be man-made.
This damage will be more from nuclear blasts that create EMP blasts that will damage infrastructure.
Or a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse weapon could be detonated high enough to damage a wide area of the infrastructure.
This detonation could cause severe damage to electrical equipment over a wide area.
#2. Your privacy and security
Many modern-day electronic equipment, including phones, have a GPS transmitter.
GPS will be used to track your location whether you want it done or not.
You can’t do much about it when you go out and need your phone with you.
But when you are not needing your phone, you should keep it and other electronic devices inside your Faraday cage.
Not only does that protect your location but it also protects the devices just in case.
When you go out, you can carry a small Faraday case with you to hold your phone until you have to use the phone.
This will help protect your location for as long as possible.
What do you store in a Faraday cage?
The best items that need this protection will be your communication devices.
Not only your phone but any walkie-talkies, ham radio, pocket radio, and so on.
These should be in a larger Faraday case at home.
You may want to make that cage large enough to hold your batteries and chargers as well.
This keeps everything in one place minimizing your search time when you need these items.
Also, in your home Faraday cage, you should store a tactical flashlight, high-powered rifle scopes, if you have them, a headlamp, night goggles, and so on.
When you go out, you should carry a personal Faraday cage but it is not going to be that large.
It should be large enough to hold a cell phone and a small radio.
This is a good option to have inside your bug out or get home bags.
You can also have a vehicle Faraday cage and it just needs to be a bit larger than the personal one.
You will want it to hold other items along with your phone and radio.
For example, a tactical flashlight, or set of walkie-talkies.
What you carry inside of your personal and vehicle Faraday cages is up to you.
Pick the items you will need the most and need the most protection.
Busting Faraday cage myths
#1. Faraday Cages are too complicated and expensive to build- no, they are not.
Some are so simple it may only take 5 minutes to construct one.
Many Faraday cages are built by professionals and are not good for survival use.
#2. Chicken wire works just as well as aluminum foil or other more conductive metal enclosures- again the answer will be no.
While chicken wire will work to some extent, it is weaker than the other options and not very protective.
#3. Ammunition cans make perfect Faraday Cages- unfortunately, ammo cans use a gasket to create an air-tight seal.
Those gaskets do not keep electromagnet waves from getting inside the can.
When making a Faraday cage, keep in mind that EMPs have a wide range, but not much power in the EHF band.
So it’s not a big deal to worry about holes that are 1 mm or smaller.
You can put a receiver inside the can, which will let energy flow into the can.
And use solder to connect your ground to the outside of the can.
#4. Faraday Cage needs to be grounded– this is unnecessary as well as complicated to do.
If you try doing it, you need to know what you are doing or you may end up ruining your cage.
Some final words
Faraday cages are great to have when you want to protect your electronic devices as well as your location.
The good news is that you do not have to spend a lot of money building one nor do they have to be elaborate.
The only aspect that makes building these cages complicated would be their size.
The bigger you go the more material you will need as well as better design.
Make yours as big as you need for the specific purpose you want the cage to do.
You do not need to go any bigger than that.
Now you know how to build a faraday cage, it’s time to do it.
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Originally posted 2023-04-17 23:55:25.
