this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 23 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It's time for electronic weaponry to hit mass production. EMP gun tech can be refined and perfected outside of official labs these days.

[–] dan69@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I’d rather there be a jammer when I drive

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wonder how well these spy devices would hold up if someone connected a horn antenna to an industrial magnetron and blasted them with 10-20 kW of RF?

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 11 points 1 day ago

Chris Voute describes that in his EMP weapons series

magnetron horn antenna microwave cannon

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

You should try, for science!

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean, you can build one yourself, but a real damaging version would require a lot of power.

Unfortunately due to the inverse square law, they don't have a very long range.

I guess a phased array emp would be the best way to do it.

Not easily done with the DIY hacky way of doing it with a coil and teaser generator, but I'm sure with some decent mosfets and transformers, it should be possible.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago

Unfortunately due to the inverse square law, they don't have a very long range.

Possibly for the better. Last thing you need is people accidentally hitting a plane with one of them.

People already do it with lasers. Something that destroys the electronics would be even worse.

[–] greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

would it not be enabled by putting it on the end of a long stick?

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

At that point, just have spray paint on a stick. Or better, just a long paint roller.

[–] greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo 4 points 9 hours ago

Not all surveilance is optical. It might just be listening for your BLE chirps or other 2.4ghz traffic from your devices

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can imagine a stick and just walking post to post touching each one while wearing a hi-viz with PG&E printed on it.

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

If you can rig it to the top of a vehicle, you can get them faster maybe.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

How? I've been trying my best to find a DIY EMP, and AFAICT, none of the ones that are easy to find blueprints or instructions to build actually create an EMP. They just short out spectacularly.

[–] N4kt0@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because you need a fuckton of energy to produce an EMP capable of damaging anything. Unless you have access to military grade warheads or a low yield nuclear device, you can forget about it.

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago

At distance yes. Close up it’s easy. Aluminum foil in your microwave easy.

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I posted one above, however given the height of many of these installations, I think the common piezo+coil demo mounted on either a telescopic floodlight bulb changing pole or a payload drone modified to shield the controller board (otherwise plan to replace the boards) would be simpler safer and cheaper.

Edit: actually since it’s a drone you can just suspend the coil by a string and rely on inverse square for shielding. Much lighter. Cheaper drone or stronger pulse.