The Public Emergency Radio of the United States was a communications system planned during the
cold war era in the 1970s, to be activated in anticipation of a nuclear attack. The radio system was designed to broadcast on 167, 179 and 191 kHz in the
long wave
In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...
radio band
The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 0 Hz to 3,000 GHz (3 THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in modern technology, particular ...
. The distribution stations would be activated by two "control stations" at 61.15 kHz, in
Ault, Colorado
Ault is a statutory town located in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 1,887 at the 2020 United States Census, a +24.23% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Ault is a part of the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Sta ...
and
Cambridge, Kansas.
The system was not implemented.
See also
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WGU-20
WGU-20 was an emergency government civil defense preparedness radio station in Chase, Maryland USA, operated by the United States Defense Civil Preparedness Agency in the 1970s.
Public emergency radio
Operating 24 hours a day on a longwave fr ...
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HANDEL
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Four minute warning
The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile ...
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Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System or the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system an ...
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Wartime Broadcasting Service
The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war. It is unclear if the ...
Cold War history of the United States
Defunct radio networks in the United States
Emergency Alert System
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Defunct radio stations in the United States
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