Category Archives: conelrad

Radio Apocalypse: The Emergency Broadcast System

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Some sounds are capable of evoking instant terror. It might be the shriek of a mountain lion, or a sudden clap of thunder. Whatever your trigger sound, it instantly stimulates something deep in the lizard brain that says: get ready, danger is at hand.

For my part, you can’t get much scarier than the instantly recognizable two-tone alert signal (audio link warning) from the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). For anyone who grew up watching TV in the 60s and 70s in the US, it was something you heard on at least a weekly basis, with that awful tone followed by …read more

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Retrotechtacular: Radio to Listen to When you Duck and Cover

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CONELRAD may sound like the name of a fictional android, but it is actually an acronym for control of electronic radiation. This was a system put in place by the United States at the height of the cold war (from 1951 to 1963) with two purposes: One was to disseminate civil defense information to the population and, also, to eliminate radio signals as homing beacons for enemy pilots.

How CONELRAD Worked

Here’s how it worked: In case of an attack, certain key stations were notified. They would use a very simple sequence to indicate there was an alert. All FCC-licensed …read more

Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Radio to Listen to When you Duck and Cover→

Retrotechtacular: Radio to Listen to When you Duck and Cover

Posted on by

CONELRAD may sound like the name of a fictional android, but it is actually an acronym for control of electronic radiation. This was a system put in place by the United States at the height of the cold war (from 1951 to 1963) with two purposes: One was to disseminate civil defense information to the population and, also, to eliminate radio signals as homing beacons for enemy pilots.

How CONELRAD Worked

Here’s how it worked: In case of an attack, certain key stations were notified. They would use a very simple sequence to indicate there was an alert. All FCC-licensed …read more

Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Radio to Listen to When you Duck and Cover→