People underestimate the energies produced by nuclear EMP. Car magnetos were dying in the trials, power lines and telegraph wires were getting shot through. Your nice tube amp would have no chance.
Do you have a reputable source for any of that? EMP effect is measured by field strength in volts per meter. If you don't have an antenna, or something to act like an antenna (telegraph/telephone/electric power lines) connected to a piece of equipment, the induced voltage in the equipment cannot be extremely large.
Solid state electronics are extremely susceptible to even mild overvoltages. Tubes are not. And magnetos are not. Low-tech magnetos ignition systems are considered to be practically invulneable to EMP.
> I also must re-emphasize the fact that during Soviet high-altitude nuclear tests over Kazakhstan in 1962, rugged diesel generators having no solid state parts were burned out by E1 EMP.
Typical E1 pulse component has up to 50KV/m at ground level and is a high-frequency spectrum, you don't need a long antenna for that. EU railway field immunity test is 10 volts per meter and huge portion of industrial electronic equipment fails that already.
Stuff that burns power lines are lower frequency (and lower yield) E2&E3 components.
Not reputable. Does the author have any conception of diesel engine theory? I do. Prior to computer controls (circa 1990s), the only active electrical component involved in keeping a diesel like the one in my Audi 5000 running, once started, is the fuel shutoff solenoid. Jam that open mechanically, and you can throw the alternator and battery away.
Your Audi has an alternator, just as the diesel generator mentioned there. It has no active components, just stator coils and possibly a rectifier, yet it was cooking up.
Yes, it has an alternator, and as I already explained, if you push-start the car and jam the fuel cutoff solenoid, you don't even need the alternator (or the battery). OK, you need them at night, for the headlights.
Those windings and diodes will carry 100 amps continuously. The E1 pulse isn't going to touch them. It doesn't last anywhere near long enough for them to even begin heating up. The E2 and E3 pulses aren't even a factor.
Solid state electronics are extremely susceptible to even mild overvoltages. Tubes are not. And magnetos are not. Low-tech magnetos ignition systems are considered to be practically invulneable to EMP.