When I was testing different Faraday containers, I took three videos of what worked and demonstrated it shielding 50,000 watts of AM radio signal. A strong AM radio signal, is a good test of EM/RF shielding, because the properties of medium wave allow it to easily penetrate most materials. Since we want to shield against high-levels of EM waves, if you can block a strong AM signal when standing at the base of the station’s antenna, you know you have decent shielding.

in this first video, I show how nesting Faraday shielding with aluminum foil and a metal trash can can be an effective shield against EM and RF energy.  EM stands for electromagnetic and RF stands for Radio Frequency.

Why did I do this? There are many webpages and videos showing the testing of Faraday cages using cell phones and relatively weak handheld radios (5 watts or less). Unfortunately, these are poor tests of whether any shielding is working, for a variety of reasons (detailed elsewhere on this site and in the ebook). You need to keep in mind that EMP is a a massively powerful pulse of EM radiation that is not easily blocked.

Why? EMP is comprised of a wide spectrum of frequencies. Very high frequencies, like VHF, UHF and higher, are very easy to shield against. It’s the lower frequencies that are difficult to block, and testing in the AM band is a far better test than using a cell phone or VHF transceiver.

Here’s part 1 of the three part series on me testing Faraday containers.  This was part of the research I did for the The Preparedness Podcast Mini-Guide: Surviving EMP [Kindle Edition] ebook.

There are a lot of questions that I am being asked about how to protect your gear from EMP. The information in the book and this series of videos should answer all of your questions. Review the information and let me know if you have any questions on it.

Relavent links:

• The Preparedness Podcast Mini-Guide: Surviving EMP [Kindle Edition] ebook
• Testing Faraday shielding for EMP, part 2
• Testing Faraday shielding for EMP, part 3