Get Ready for ATSC 3.0

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Titan1a

AM is the "last resort" should all other broadcast communication fail. There are hundreds of millions of operable receivers. Change that and I'll pull the plug on all domestic broadcast wireless listening.

No kidding. Remember AM radio dials with CONELRAD markings? Anyone who has watched Christine has seen them. I rest my case.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

No kidding. Remember AM radio dials with CONELRAD markings? Anyone who has watched Christine has seen them. I rest my case.

I grew up in the Cold War era and remember very well the Conelrad icons on AM radio dials at 640 and 1240, also the Conelrad tests on radio and TV. One of my best (!) memories of the Cold War era (I'll never forget it!) is seeing a Conelrad test on TV in 1963. I was seven years old and just about jumped out of my skin the first time I saw the Conelrad symbol on our 21" Crosley TV. I did not realize this was only a Conelrad test, not "the real deal", and I ran through the living room down the long hall between there and the back of the house, scared out of my wits that the Russians were going to drop a huge bomb on our area of northeast Ohio and blow us all to kingdom come.

BTW, yes, I have seen the movie "Christine", and the tuning scale on the car's radio did in fact have the CD symbols at 640 and 1240, as did all car and home radios made between 1953 and 1963. I have a Zenith C-845 AM-FM table radio, made in 1960, that has these symbols (actually the letters "CD", not the icons themselves) at 640 and 1240 as well. These markings were placed by law on all AM radio dials so that people would not waste valuable time looking for the local Conelrad alert station when local stations went off the air per FCC regulations in effect at the time.

Another reminder of the Cold War era was a YouTube video of a Conelrad radio test gone awry, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The station was WOWO-1190 and the DJ had just put on a record; suddenly, the sound faded to nothing and a station announcer was heard issuing a Conelrad alert. The alert turned out to have been erroneously broadcast over stations in the Fort Wayne area due to an unfortunate mixup. Do a Google search to see the entire story of this incident, which I am sure anyone who was living in the area at the time will never forget. I live 30 miles outside Cleveland, and grew up in a suburb 15 miles east of the city; however, I don't recall ever hearing any botched Conelrad alerts on local radio stations.

However, in the '70s, someone with a warped sense of humor came up with a musical version of the Conelrad (by then EBS, for Emergency Broadcast System) test, which was later banned and in fact was declared illegal. That the test was sung instead of being read from a script by an announcer was bad enough, but the worst part of that illegal Conelrad test was how it ended: "This concludes this test-----of the Emergency Broadcast System! Did you pass?" I believe that ending, and that the test was made into a singing jingle, was what finally got the jingle banned from American radio, and I don't blame the FCC for doing that, if in fact they did; after all, this was meant to be an emergency alert, meant to be read, not sung, by an announcer. IMO, whomever came up with the idea for this should have been arrested and jailed for attempting to make a mockery of the former Emergency Broadcast System. I'm sure if anyone ever tried to do this with today's Emergency Alert System (EAS), the person would in fact be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I grew up in the Cold War era and remember very well the Conelrad icons on AM radio dials at 640 and 1240, also the Conelrad tests on radio and TV. One of my best (!) memories of the Cold War era (I'll never forget it!) is seeing a Conelrad test on TV in 1963. I was seven years old and just about jumped out of my skin the first time I saw the Conelrad symbol on our 21" Crosley TV. I did not realize this was only a Conelrad test, not "the real deal", and I ran through the living room down the long hall between there and the back of the house, scared out of my wits that the Russians were going to drop a huge bomb on our area of northeast Ohio and blow us all to kingdom come.

Yeesh, I can certainly see why that would be your clearest Cold War era memory, that would have been like a branding iron to the brain.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

BTW, yes, I have seen the movie "Christine", and the tuning scale on the car's radio did in fact have the CD symbols at 640 and 1240, as did all car and home radios made between 1953 and 1963. I have a Zenith C-845 AM-FM table radio, made in 1960, that has these symbols (actually the letters "CD", not the icons themselves) at 640 and 1240 as well. These markings were placed by law on all AM radio dials so that people would not waste valuable time looking for the local Conelrad alert station when local stations went off the air per FCC regulations in effect at the time.

For sure, I'm just saying that Christine is likely to have introduced many people to the CONELRAD symbol, those people just wouldn't have recognized it at first. The symbol made it onto some early 1964 dials as well as deactivation came too late for design changes.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Another reminder of the Cold War era was a YouTube video of a Conelrad radio test gone awry, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The station was WOWO-1190 and the DJ had just put on a record; suddenly, the sound faded to nothing and a station announcer was heard issuing a Conelrad alert. The alert turned out to have been erroneously broadcast over stations in the Fort Wayne area due to an unfortunate mixup. Do a Google search to see the entire story of this incident, which I am sure anyone who was living in the area at the time will never forget.

No kidding, and they would have at least needed a clean pair of shorts.

I don't know if nukes were a threat up here but my 1955 Pye radio scale lacks the CONELRAD symbol. It's a British design but was made at a plant in Ontario so who knows.

[centralradio]

I'm waiting for a day that all the DTV's and digital cable boxes become a brick when a special virus effects and corrupts the bios/flash chips in them and make them renderless and no fix available .That would put the numnuts that came up with the system on the spot. lease we have no issues if analog was still here.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I'm waiting for a day that all the DTV's and digital cable boxes become a brick when a special virus effects and corrupts the bios/flash chips in them and make them renderless and no fix available .That would put the numnuts that came up with the system on the spot. lease we have no issues if analog was still here.

Unlikely to ever happen. Most boxes are Linux based, Linux is hard to write viruses for and the cable companies are a secretive cabal of encryption and proprietary equipment fetishists....A virus would just about have to be an inside job.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Unlikely to ever happen. Most boxes are Linux based, Linux is hard to write viruses for and the cable companies are a secretive cabal of encryption and proprietary equipment fetishists....A virus would just about have to be an inside job.

I'm more worried about the OTA set-top boxes and the newer sets that have ATSC capability.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I'm waiting for a day that all the DTV's and digital cable boxes become a brick when a special virus effects and corrupts the bios/flash chips in them and make them renderless and no fix available .That would put the numnuts that came up with the system on the spot. lease we have no issues if analog was still here.

There's a B in numbnuts!

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

There's a B in numbnuts!

Sorry.Typo.Numbnuts.Blame the eggnog.LOL..............

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I grew up in the Cold War era and remember very well the Conelrad icons on AM radio dials at 640 and 1240, also the Conelrad tests on radio and TV. One of my best (!) memories of the Cold War era (I'll never forget it!) is seeing a Conelrad test on TV in 1963. I was seven years old and just about jumped out of my skin the first time I saw the Conelrad symbol on our 21" Crosley TV. I did not realize this was only a Conelrad test, not "the real deal", and I ran through the living room down the long hall between there and the back of the house, scared out of my wits that the Russians were going to drop a huge bomb on our area of northeast Ohio and blow us all to kingdom come.

BTW, yes, I have seen the movie "Christine", and the tuning scale on the car's radio did in fact have the CD symbols at 640 and 1240, as did all car and home radios made between 1953 and 1963. I have a Zenith C-845 AM-FM table radio, made in 1960, that has these symbols (actually the letters "CD", not the icons themselves) at 640 and 1240 as well. These markings were placed by law on all AM radio dials so that people would not waste valuable time looking for the local Conelrad alert station when local stations went off the air per FCC regulations in effect at the time.


.

The worst cold war incident was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was about 17 at the time and was scared sh#tless. Many people say, "You don't know how close we came to all-out Nuclear war".
Now we have this goof-ball with the lousy haircut to worry about.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Now we have this goof-ball with the lousy haircut to worry about.

I doubt you all need to worry much about him. I think a war between the US and North Korea would be something like this:

[Jeffhs]

The chances of HDTVs, set-top boxes, DTV converter boxes, etc. being irreparably damaged or even destroyed by nuclear events and so on are extremely slim. As was mentioned, most STBs, DTV converters, and even HD televisions themselves are powered by Linux, which, again as mentioned, is all but impervious to viruses. When new software is installed on a Linux-based computer, the system always asks for the user's password before initiating the software download; these systems do not allow anything to be downloaded without a password, so, again, the chances of malicious software (malware) being downloaded to a Linux-based system are slim to nonexsistent. This system was incorporated into Linux for just that reason: to prevent rogue software from being downloaded and installed. A recent episode of the NBC-TV series "Chicago Med", in which the hospital's entire computer system was shut down by a rogue virus, was probably based on just such a worst case scenario, and may well have been where VK member Centralradio got the idea for his comments.

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Unlikely to ever happen. Most boxes are Linux based, Linux is hard to write viruses for and the cable companies are a secretive cabal of encryption and proprietary equipment fetishists....A virus would just about have to be an inside job.

Thats good news they are using Linux.They be doomed if they were using Windows.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

The chances of HDTVs, set-top boxes, DTV converter boxes, etc. being irreparably damaged or even destroyed by nuclear events and so on are extremely slim. As was mentioned, most STBs, DTV converters, and even HD televisions themselves are powered by Linux, which, again as mentioned, is all but impervious to viruses. When new software is installed on a Linux-based computer, the system always asks for the user's password before initiating the software download; these systems do not allow anything to be downloaded without a password, so, again, the chances of malicious software (malware) being downloaded to a Linux-based system are slim to nonexsistent. This system was incorporated into Linux for just that reason: to prevent rogue software from being downloaded and installed. A recent episode of the NBC-TV series "Chicago Med", in which the hospital's entire computer system was shut down by a rogue virus, was probably based on just such a worst case scenario, and may well have been where VK member Centralradio got the idea for his comments.

Never seen the show.Chicago Med.Not into current TV shows.Just thinking ahead what could happen with anything that is digital.It does not take too much to screw it up.Just dont trust it.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

A recent episode of the NBC-TV series "Chicago Med", in which the hospital's entire computer system was shut down by a rogue virus, was probably based on just such a worst case scenario, and may well have been where VK member Centralradio got the idea for his comments.

The plot of that episode was dealing with ransomware, which is very real and has created serious havoc already. Not just a TV story, this stuff is real life.

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