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Conelrad Test and the Emergency Broadcast System

V

VCarter

Does anyone remember the Emergency Broadcast System (and before that Conelrad
Test) notices local stations would run in the 1950's, '60s, and '70s in which
the announcer in the background would explain-'This is a test of the Emergency
Broadcast System, this is only a test' and then a 1-minute tone would blast on
the slide, which then would stop and the announcer got back on and explain a
few more things about where to tune on the radio and local and state authorities
on what to do in the event of an emergency. the announcer would give one last
repeat, 'This has been a test of the Emergency Broadcast System' anyone else
remember this?
 
> Does anyone remember the Emergency Broadcast System (and
> before that Conelrad
> Test) notices local stations would run in the 1950's, '60s,
> and '70s...?

Don't know if TV was involved with Conelrad (especially since the EBS didn't involve TV until the mid-1970s), but many of us do remember the old EBS tests. And I think the attention tone lasted for 30 seconds, not a minute.

Nevertheless, nothing dampens your TV viewing or radio listening other than during the commercials, when you hear the phrase, "This is a test..."
 
> > Does anyone remember the Emergency Broadcast System (and
> > before that Conelrad
> > Test) notices local stations would run in the 1950's,
> '60s,
> > and '70s...?
>
> Don't know if TV was involved with Conelrad (especially
> since the EBS didn't involve TV until the mid-1970s), but
> many of us do remember the old EBS tests. And I think the
> attention tone lasted for 30 seconds, not a minute.
>
> Nevertheless, nothing dampens your TV viewing or radio
> listening other than during the commercials, when you hear
> the phrase, "This is a test..."
>
Conelrad tests were conducted on TV; I remember them as far
back as the late '50s.
 
> > Does anyone remember the Emergency Broadcast System (and
> > before that Conelrad
> > Test) notices local stations would run in the 1950's,
> '60s,
> > and '70s...?
>
> Don't know if TV was involved with Conelrad (especially
> since the EBS didn't involve TV until the mid-1970s), but
> many of us do remember the old EBS tests. And I think the
> attention tone lasted for 30 seconds, not a minute.
>
> Nevertheless, nothing dampens your TV viewing or radio
> listening other than during the commercials, when you hear
> the phrase, "This is a test..."
>

The signal may not be as bad now, but at least they had a time set aside for the test on the old signal, instead of being dropped in at random right on top of regular programming like is done now on some stations.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ccmfan on 03/31/06 09:55 PM.</FONT></P>
 
I think that Conelrad was more specifically a radio term. The idea was to prevent Soviet long-range bombers from homing in on targets using commercial radio signals. They used to mark radio dials with special symbols on 640 and 1240 kHz.

Whenever a Conelrad alert went out all radio stations in the alert area were to sign off. Then they were to start broadcasting civil defense instructions on those two frequencies, at very low power (50 watts, I believe), with each station being up for a few minutes, and then shutting down and letting the next one take over on the same freq. The idea was to prevent the bombers from getting a lock on any one particular radio signal, while still maintaining some ability to convey info. to the public. Since the signal would be weaker, and would come from a different tower location every few minutes, it was supposed to keep them from getting a fix.

This was modeled on something the BBC did during WWII for cities that were within German bombing range. Once the nuclear strategy moved from long-range bombers to ICBM's, Conelrad became obsolete. I am not sure how effective it would have actually been in confusing a plane's target. I think it applied to TV only in the sense that TV stations were to sign off, along with FM, and the public was then instructed to tune to 640/1240 AM only.
 
> > > Does anyone remember the Emergency Broadcast System (and
>
> > > before that Conelrad
> > > Test) notices local stations would run in the 1950's,
> > '60s,
> > > and '70s...?
> >
> > The reason that the tone is dropped in automatically nowadays, is exactly that, it is totally automated. Once a weekly or monthly Emergency Alert System test is issued, all stations must run the test within 15 minutes or the system automatically overides anything on the air and runs itself.
 
Re: Conelrad and Bill Cosby

Remembering an old Bill Cosby routine; his dad would fall asleep watching TV and wake up and growl if anybody tried to go over and turn it off or change it:

Dad: Don't change that!
Bill: But Dad, it's Conelrad
Dad: Leave it alone, he's a great detective.
 
"If this were not a test, you would have been instructed to bend over, and kiss yourself goodbye".

As I recall, TV stations had to cut their audio carrier off (5 sec off, five sec on, five sec off, thenback on for tone) like radio had to do.<P ID="signature">______________
"Your right to know supersedes your right to exist"..Gary Burbank</P>
 
Re: Conelrad and Bill Cosby

> Remembering an old Bill Cosby routine; his dad would fall
> asleep watching TV and wake up and growl if anybody tried to
> go over and turn it off or change it:
>
> Dad: Don't change that!
> Bill: But Dad, it's Conelrad
> Dad: Leave it alone, he's a great detective.

Great joke.
In my early broadcasting career I worked at a radio station that was part of Conelrad System. The station had a generator that we could never start. It had a bomb shelter which the floor was usually covered with about three inches of water and a sealed tub of peanut butter in the corner for food. I often thought to myself, would I want to survive in a place like this, and in a world having a person like me be the voice of authority on the radio?

>
 
Re: Conelrad and Bill Cosby

> Remembering an old Bill Cosby routine; his dad would fall
> asleep watching TV and wake up and growl if anybody tried to
> go over and turn it off or change it:
>
> Dad: Don't change that!
> Bill: But Dad, it's Conelrad
> Dad: Leave it alone, he's a great detective.

CONELRAD=CONtrol ELectromagnetic RADiation

And the "duck and cover" routine people were taught in the event of a nuclear attack. As if the routine was going to do any good after everyone and everything was vaporized within milliseconds of the blast wave hitting.
>
 
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