History Symbols on radios between 1953 and 1963

Funny how stuff like this is common knowledge to those of us of a certain age, but it's news to others...

I have one of those big green water containers in like new condition - my neighbor had put it out for the trash, so I grabbed it. I haven't figured out a good use for it yet, but it's kind of neat to have around.

I ate one of those stale cracker things once, it was pretty bad.

 

It was a scandal at the time, there was a huge "hurry up" government bidding/contract to supply the numbers required. Nabisco did fine I'm sure, but others ... well maybe they didn't use such care in their selection of ingredients. They were rancid from the git go. Aging in the bunker did not improve their eating qualities.

"Preppers" should always test their supplies. I have some canned beef set aside for emergencies, it was kind of spendy, too. I cracked a can open and it was the gawdawfullest stench. It wasn't "bad" in the sense it isn't safe to eat, it's just nasty.

 

Thank you for the correction.

 

Conelrad had civilian participation as well. A lot of that was left over from the aircraft spotters on the second war.

We had provisions in our garage. Shrink wrapped blankets (or the '50s equivalent of shrink wrap), 5 gallon cans of potable water, helmets and binoculars. I still had a bundle of blankets in the '80s, made the mistake of leaving it at a friends house on the border and he cut it open to see if the blankets were any good. Oh well they were just blankets.

 

Those were the days alright. Neighbors digging up their back yards to build a bunker. Some were downright unsafe to go into and would have never survived a conventional bomb strike let alone a nuke. Civil Defense drills were as common as the weekly "Duck and Cover" drills were at school into the 1960's. Then they pretty much faded away and became forgotten along with the deterioration of the "Fallout Shelters". Most now are torn down or downgraded enough that they have become collectors items on e buy. Will our children and grandchildren even know what they were or meant? Not unless we tell them like we teach them to drive our "three on the trees" and Model A's.

 

Hmmm...sounds like we've traded nuclear bombs for masks....

 

The EMP will destroy semiconductor (i.e. transistor) electrical components.

 

I think CONELRAD was supposed to be replaced by a spread spectrum scheme but I don't think it was ever implemented.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-hopping_spread_spectrum

 

One thing that was strange, on 9/11/2001, they never did cut in with the Emergency Broadcast System tones that they'd been testing for decades, no sirens, nothing. Oh well.

 

That's an interesting point. As much as we think we've advanced with modern technology, etc, it seems previous generations were better at action/reaction/response than we are now. In the 50's we had Civil Defense, now we have a multitude of overlapping agencies that sit back and wait for the other guy to take action.

 

Saw that alot in my last assignment as a 19D Instructor before my retirement in 2013. At the beginning of the training cycle "no sense of urgency". By the end those that were left had learned it. As has been said throughout history. "Don't put off to tomorrow what can be done today."

 

I wonder if the symbols just came on factory installed radios? My dad bought his 57 PU new, I don’t recall if he had the radio put in later or not ( like the heater) but it doesn’t have those symbols on it.

 

Most radios from U.S. factories had them, even household radios. Maybe aftermarket radios from off shore sources didn't have them. IDK.

 

that's what they taught in army basic training!

 

I remember sitting in the hallway thinking shit this won't work as the low bidder built this crappy building an it is going to fall on my dumb head. glad I never found out if it was true or not

 

I used to be on a decontamination team when I was in the Air Force in the late 1980's. One of the training videos we watched was filmed in the early 1960's showing a family out for a picnic in their new Chevy II convertible. When the nuclear mushroom cloud went off on the horizon, they ducked under a blanket, scurried to the car, and went to the nearest fallout shelter. It showed them arriving at the shelter, hanging up their jackets, brushing themselves off, and walking inside. We knew better, but it was still hilarious to watch.

 

I've always been pretty fascinated with Civil Defense, so I've accumulated a bunch of Civil Defense memorabilia. Somewhere I have some Civil Defense radio programs on vinyl that were distributed to regular radio stations to be played on specific dates and then destroyed. I also have several radios that I bought for no reason other than that they have the CONELRAD frequencies marked.

 

This is the Emergency Broadcasting System announcement that replaced the Conelrad system. We used to hear this twice a year over every radio station. It's the one I remember.

 

Remember that well heard it more than a few times.

 

In the 50's my dad belonged to some neighborhood watch connected to the C.D. Had a helmet and armband. I wonder if my sisters kept it. They hung on to everything.

 

My Civil Defense item's...found them in a basement of a house that I was hired to paint years back, the helmet was hanging on the wall and the other items were in a cabinet next to it, old lady gave them to me...the radiation meter and booklet I found elsewhere.
I thought the pages on identifying war planes from there silhouettes was really cool.
I remember drills in grade school about getting under your desk...
but it was for possible missile launchs from Cuba...if they hit the
"Button".

Sent from my SM-T307U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

That's neat. I've never been able to talk to anyone who was actually in CD at its height, I guess I'm a generation too late.

I think it's a really good idea to get the local community involved in disaster preparedness (beyond just nuclear war) rather than rely entirely on slow-moving federal organizations like what CD evolved into, not that FEMA is a bad thing necessarily but CD seems like it would be faster moving and more compassionate due to being comprised of neighbors.

 

One of the few remaining S.E. Mich Nike sites is finally getting repurposed into a trucking hub. I tried to talk some monied folks into buying it and making a Nike Missle Motorsports park and museum of it. The site itself was 15-20 acres and there was an additional 237 acres attached and being farmed for years. There's still 2 towers standing, some of the buildings have been knocked down.
Newport/Carleton, MI site D-57:

The homes/barracks in the upper left are still there and are single family small cinder block houses today called (I think) Frenchtown Commons.

These machine mounts could be a helluva hobbyist surface plate:

Boiler room:

One of the 2 standing radar/launch towers visible from US-24 Telegraph Road:

All of this is just 2 or 3 miles as the crow flies from my dump. In nearby Riverview there's a shell of a Minute Man missle in homage to a site there too. Riverview, Newport and Grosse Isle all had defense infrastructure, and the above pics show how mother nature took over the Newport site. Fascinating history in spite of the subject matter. I should shoot a pic of the housing comunity as it is today and revisit. Don't get yer hopes up but...

 

Aaannd here it is today. The base housing as I said:

The park from the west side of the base:

That's the trucking site in the background, and here's the model airplane field:

And about all thats left:

Progress, such as it is. Of note, every year there's a tractor show at Nike Park here. Usually mid July and it is without a doubt the friendliest motor event you can possibly attend. There's a swap meet/flea market that's great for old tools and kool vintage stuff sometimes. On Saturday there's an auction. I shagged an old trailer axle there on 3 1/2" wide 5s on drums and spindles and included a spare too. Sometimes our faves show up in the most odd of places. If you're in SE MI around that time don't miss it.

 

Only in case of an EMP bomb...No discussion please.
6sally6

 

We had a NORAD early warning radar base an hour away to detect any threats flying over this part of Canada on its way south. Shortest route was over the Arctic. There was always some tension and I remember the Cuban missile crisis with the naval blockade had the world on edge. My grandmother panicked then and bought a hundred pound bag of sugar as she thought it would be rationed again. We ate a lot of great pies and baking for awhile. Some uptight years to follow but lots of great music came out of mid to late 60's to early 70's. (Life and times of we Boomers)