Re: Conelrad question

["R.L. Caron" <k4gp@peganet.com>]

<< In the event of an attack warning, all regular broadcasting (regular AM,
all FM, and all TV) was supposed to cease. >>

OK, now I remember that it did involve ALL of broadcasting. But what about
other sources of RF that could just as easily have provided guidance into an
area? It's hard to believe that the government would pull the plug on the
entire US air navigation system, NDBs, VORs, ILSs, 4 course LFs, etc. while
planes were en route to destinations flying IFR. Or that the New York City
police would be deprived of their radios (probably low band VHF at the time)
for the duration of an emergency. If it's true that absolutely everything
emitting RF had to be shut down, a CONELRAD activation would clearly have
made things worse by rendering police and fire services nearly ineffective
at the time they are most needed, and leaving aircraft flying in clouds
without ground-based navigation.

As I'm sure you know, the higher frequencies make for even better RF point
sources...especially close in. That's how the air navigation system works.
And they all nicely ID with the name of the facility to which they are
attached. Certainly, our enemies could have found their targets by simply
using the same system friendly planes employed to land safely. The thought
that our enemies were so technologically retarded as to have to depend on AM
broadcast waves to find a target while at the same time sophisticated enough
to build bombs and planes capable of flying thousands of miles should have
had people rolling in the aisles. Maybe the people of the early '50s were
too busy recovering from the war effort, building their Leavittowns, and
enjoying the new prosperity to take notice.

I couldn't make much sense of CONELRAD while it existed, and I find it even
more ludicrous in retrospect.