As a communications engineer, I began to look into what might happen to a modern emergency communication system in the event that *something* went down.
I came across a paper at this site which tweaked my interest in EMP:
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/asat/haleos.pdf
Here's a reference for EMP protection:
http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/empprotection.htm
It would be hard to verify if these methods of protection really work though.
I guess my Toyota BJ-73 would probably be dead after something like an EMP. Sigh...