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In the midst of an on-going debate about how to make the best use of a
national emergency alert system, I thought it would be interesting
to take a look at one of the original alert systems dating back to
the former Soviet Threat. In 1951, fearful of a Soviet attack, and
determined to keep U.S. citizens alert, President Truman signed into
existence the Control of Electromagnetic Radiation system, or CONELRAD.
Back then, controlling electronic radiation meant keeping Soviet planes
from tracking targets in the U.S. by tracking radio signals. To keep
this from happening, CONELRAD called for commercial radio stations
to stop broadcasting immediately when receiving an alert. Only select
stations would stay on air, broadcasting on 640 or 1240 kHz.
 Between
1953 and 1963, all radios sold in the United States were required to
have the two CONELRAD frequencies marked clearly on the dial. If you
have older radios in your home, or if you browse through older radios
in a flea market, you can identify CONELRAD-era radios from the two
small triangular marks on the dial known as CD symbols. These triangles
provide a very useful identifying mark for radio collectors. Sometimes
the triangles are enclosed in small circles as well. Though some people
think that the CD comes from the C and D in ConelraD, in fact CD stands
for Civil Defense.
CONELRAD became obsolete by 1963. According to a Civil
Defense Manual which can be viewed on-line, the Soviet shift
toward ballistic missiles made CONELRAD obsolete by 1963. Ballistic
missiles meant the possibility of long-distance strikes, and there
was no need for pilots to home in on targets from the air. The change
in Soviet missile technology resulted in a change in the national emergency
alert system. CONELRAD was replaced with the Emergency Broadcast System,
which stayed with us until it morphed into the Emergency Alert System.
Thus far, none of the national emergency alert systems have been used
by a U.S. President.
Currently, national alerts can be broadcast to the public through a NOAA Weather
Radio. For more information on the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) see our past What's in the News article titled NOAA
One of the Best Kept Secret on the Web.
To view our past articles, please visit our What's in the News Archives.
As always, please contact us with any comments or
article suggestions you might have.
If you are interested in using C. Crane's articles on your own Web site,
please let me know. I'd be happy to take a look at your Web site and
see what we can do. Good-bye for now, Carlos. About
the author
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