| rdfs:comment
| - Before CONELRAD was established in 1949, local and state governments had been in charge of emergency alerts to their citizens. However, many localities did not opt for this due to the cost, and only the largest cities (with the notable exception of Washington, D.C., due to its role as a federal city with a very restricted local government) could afford to implement such system, as well as the reluctance of radio stations to participate. The invasion of the United States by the Confederacy in 1942, and the subsequent chaos in the effected states which had not received warning beforehand gave the federal government the push it needed to take over nationwide emergency services. It wasn't until 1947 after the war however, for the US Congress and President George C. Marshall to make it a priori
|
| abstract
| - Before CONELRAD was established in 1949, local and state governments had been in charge of emergency alerts to their citizens. However, many localities did not opt for this due to the cost, and only the largest cities (with the notable exception of Washington, D.C., due to its role as a federal city with a very restricted local government) could afford to implement such system, as well as the reluctance of radio stations to participate. The invasion of the United States by the Confederacy in 1942, and the subsequent chaos in the effected states which had not received warning beforehand gave the federal government the push it needed to take over nationwide emergency services. It wasn't until 1947 after the war however, for the US Congress and President George C. Marshall to make it a priority to build a federal warning system, especially over fears of French, Brazilian and Japanese nuclear armed bombers, many of which were positioned within hours of major cities in Quebec, the Gulf States Confederation and Mexico. The Department of Communication was placed in charge of the new system, and set out to name determine which stations would be placed on the "CONELRAD Notification List." Divided into three parts, the Notification List detailed that stations at Tier I would be the first to receive the signal from the Department of Defense, which would receive warning from a chain of radar stations throughout the world (at least four had to detect the launch of missiles in order for the signal to be sent) and would then initiate the warning. Tier II, once having received the signal from their Tier I station, would then initiate the warning. Once the Tier III stations received the warning from Tier II, they would then initiate the warning. From the Department of Defense receiving the first reports of hostile threats approaching America to the Tier III station finishing sending its warning to the people in its area, it should have taken 2.5 minutes, presumably taking at least 30 seconds for the minimum four radars to report in, then 30 more seconds for each step from the Department of Defense to Tier I to Tier II to Tier III. It was estimated that almost 85 to 90% if America could be alerted to the threat of a nuclear attack in less than 5 minutes, though through testing the system, it was more likely between 5 and 15 minutes for most of the US to hear the warning. The first test of the service took place on March 5, 1949, and despite prior warnings and disclaimers, there was still a major panic in many places, especially in smaller towns that had never had an alert before. By September 1950, the system was considered fully operational, and a weekly test, usually at 7:00 PM on Friday in each time zone of the United States was conducted. This was designed so that the vast majority of people listening or watching would be around to hear the test, and to be reminded of what would happen in an actual attack. A disclaimer would be presented, then the test (detailed below) would be performed. Sometimes during the test the transmitters, unable to cope with being rapidly turned on and off and on again, would fail. This was later informally called the CONELRAD Test, and even to this day a sudden failure of transmission would be so called. The tests continued up until the advent of the Emergency Broadcast Alert System, and until 1969 when the current test was established.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)