[Telecom] Reverse 911

Remember that with nuclear bombers _already_en_route_ to your locale,

In addition, while a 'cold start' power-up does take non-trivial time for big gear, switching from 'stand-by' to transmit, is an entirely different kettle of fish. "Ham" operators routinely do it in fractional seconds, at kilowatt levels, with home-built equipment. Then, look at the LORAN network; sub-second pulse-burse transmissions, at power levels an order of magnitude higher then AM broadcast. As long as the 'final' filaments are warm, you

-can- cycle the "B+" fairly quickly.

Also, you have to take into account the 'threat' involved. *NOT ballistic missiles, but jet bombers -- sub-sonic to slightly supersonic speeds. The time-scale is _hours_. 'Rapid' cycling was not required. IIRC there were (on the close order of) six transmitter changes per hour.

"Yeabut" applies. In emergency mode, the stations dropped the secondary radiators, and transmitted only on the primary tower. And, _that_ antenna, operating alone, is only somewhat more sensitive to frequency excursions than, say, the receiving antenna in a car. One adjustment to the loading coil gets it "good enough for a government job". Remember, again, the 'operating conditions' where this would be used -- *NOBODY*CARES* whether or not it's a 'clean', or 'efficient' signal.

It wasn't -that- bad.

Yeah, the transmitter need another crystal, crystal oven, and a selecting switch. This is a _comparatively_ petty-cash expense item.

Didn't need anything special on the phasors, as they were used only for normal operation. (bypass the phasor array, direct to the primary antenna load, for CONELRAD ops.)

Very little additional 'antenna engineering' required -- the prime radiator used alone (assuming a directional array) was 'broad enough' to serve.

All the stations were of a size/class that a 'FCC 1st class' licensed engineer was required on duty at the transmitter location at all times. And there was 'the book', that detailed the steps for switching over to the emergency frequency. It _wasn't_ push a few buttons; rather it was wrench and screwdriver work. I don't know about these days, but older transmitter facilities used a _lot_ of copper water pipe as the plumbing that carried the signal.

As far as 'designed to fail' goes, consider what was available to work with, circa 1950, and try to design a 'better' system. Requirements: 1) something that _everybody_ can receive, _without_ requiring ongoing and/or continuous adjustment. (Thus, effectively, it needs to be 'set and forget' on the 'public' side. 2) does not provide 'aid and comfort' to the enemy, in the form of reliable navigation beacons. 3) can be accomplished/implemented for a 'reasonable' cost.

I think the system was very well designed to accomplish its purpose, but you guys are all missing the point of what that purpose was.

The *REAL* purpose of CONELRAD was to keep the public scared by constantly reminding them of the threat of nuclear war. It was just another "psychological warfare" game the Pentagon played so nobody would ask what they really did for a living.

Just my 2 cents.

Internal Combustion

I don't know if that was the reason, but the defense systems that was built around many American cities was of little use, Los Angeles for example, by the time they were active we would have been toast.

All communities within a specified distance of a nuclear power plant have lots of sirens.

I would suggest you do some reading on Joseph Stalin, Kruschev, and the people they had around them. In other words, those people had a long record of brutally murdering millions of their own countrymen, even their own comrades and friends. You think they would've hesitated about killing outsiders? No, they would not.

Having no civilian defense would've resulted in higher casualties than having some sort of plan.

Obviously in the immediate area of ground zero things will be very bad. But there is a very large peripheral area where people in shelters had a better chance of survival.

Aren't people in California trained what to do in caes of earthquake?

To some extent. During the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake, I was working for GTE and was on duty; really on break at the time in the Sunland CO. We were knocked on our asses and every can cover on the old steppers hit the floor, plus there were so many alarms in the office that the OAF blew it main fuses.

What I mend by defenses were ICBM's that surrounded the Los Angeles area, that made the area a major target because of the military. Years ago I was able to go down one of these holes as they were being removed, we had to take out telecom equipment that belonged to the company.

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While that is all true, it is also true that the most powerful tool a politician can use to rally support is FEAR. History is replete with examples, culminating in the current administration in Washington.