Speaking of Conelrad, one of the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club (MAARC) members put together a presentation on CONELRAD for one of their monthly meetings. The presentation can be found on this page of the MAARC website: https://maarc.org/monthly-meetings-slides/

Dave Rossetti

410-279-0226 (Mobile)

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Robert Nickels
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2024 12:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Speaking of Conelrad-

On 3/10/2024 9:17 AM, [email protected] wrote:

I don't know about that but there used to be the Ground  Wave Emergency 
Network, a network of LF transmission stations that were designed to 
provide digital communications after everything else went down.  They 
were located in rural areas that enabled them to be linked to key 
military installations.

I remember being interested in GWEN when it was announced, and later found one of the sites was along US-30 in eastern Iowa which I travel often.   I drove up to the gate and took a look but not much to see but equipment buildings and the tower.   Then a few years ago I couldn't find it, and recent Google Maps imagery confirmed that it was gone.  The location at US-30 and Indian Rd. just east of Mechanicsville IA has been returned to farmland.

Here are side-by-side satellite images from Google Earth that confirm this happened between June 2014 and March 2016:

https://i.imgur.com/slqqbD5.png

I've read that a partial GWEN network call the Thin Line Connectivity Capability (TLCC) was completed, which consisted of 8 input/output stations, 30 receive-only stations, and 54 relay nodes.  It provided "a limited level of HEMP-protected communications to strategic forces and the National Commany Authority".

Evidently no longer needed...(?)

73, Bob W9RAN