Got a 1953-1963 AM radio?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Reece

I'm warmin' up my Conelrad just in case the Krazy in N. Korea gets any more ideas. Oh, my.

Conelrad was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System in 1963, and later by the Emergency Alert System, EAS being the current early-warning network.

I doubt Conelrad will be reactivated, even in the event of another Korean War, although anything is possible. If it were to be reactivated, however, there would be many AM radios that would have to have their tuning dials marked with the Conelrad icons at 640 and 1240 kHz, as all radios made after the end of the Conelrad era in 1963 are devoid of these icons.

Many TV and radio stations still ran the old Conelrad tests for several years after the official end of the Conelrad era. (I remember one Cleveland TV station that still showed the old CD symbol as late as 1980, as part of their sign-off; they continued this until they began 24-hour operations in the 1990s, and the PBS TV station used a CD test slide that showed the CD symbol with the words "on radio" in cursive writing.)

There was a project in the '50s, during the Conelrad era, in which radios that did not already have Conelrad icons were marked with such any time the radios were in for repairs. However, I don't know what changes would be made if Conelrad was once again activated. I would think the old system of silencing all radio stations in the affected area (except the designated Conelrad alert station), even 24-hour non-stop ones, would be retained and used if necessary to prevent, or at least minimize, the possibilities of enemy aircraft homing in on local radio signals to wreak havoc on local areas.

Note that Conelrad was never used even in its heyday, only periodically tested. The current Emergency Alert System has been activated for such things as severe weather alerts, Amber alerts, etc. but never (yet, anyway) for nuclear attack warnings. This could change in an instant, however, if the Koreans decide to start things up again (the TV news and newspapers have been warning us of such a possibility as of late), and declare another war.

I hate the thought of it, but it could happen again. If so, I don't know if the EAS would be capable of issuing warnings early enough to prevent widespread damage. As I said, there would probably have to be in place a method of silencing all radio stations, including amateur and CB, in case of an emergency, which EAS does not have or require at this time.