[GreenKeys] TYYs and the Emergency Broadcast System

[Ralph Irish]

After seeing recent mentions of EBS and CONELRAD, I e-mailed a ham friend who worked for the CBS-TV
station in the Metro Detroit Area, WJBK-TV (Channel 2).  I got a note back from him that I will
paste below:

From: 	Jim Prest <jimprestv2 at gmail.com>
	Subject: 	Re: [GreenKeys] TYYs and the Emergency Broadcast System
	Date: 	November 17, 2017 9:31:26 AM EST
	To: 	Ralph Irish <w8roi at wowway.com>

Hi, Ralph.

Yes, the UPI and AP machines (Model 15s) each had a contact that closed
each time the bell rang.  Originally it just flashed a light in the news
room  by the dispatcher's desk.  After we moved to Southfield in 1972 we
got a little box with a stepper relay in it that counted the contact
closures and when it counted ten "dings" it latched a relay and sounded
an alarm. In the case of a weather alert it was three rings (I think).
I remember installing the little boxes on the machines and building a
remote display panel for the Master Control operator since there was
someone in MCR 24  hours a day but the news room went home after the
11:00 news.  I still have the panel and had the counter boxes but can't
find them. After a few years the Teletype machines were replaced with a
dot-matrix printer that had the circuitry inside.  Also started "manning"
the  news room 24/7.  After we moved the MCR to a different location
the panel was unnecessary so I brought it home.  

Trust this answers your question.





His description above pretty well sums up that system for his station, but Jim said
he would try to answer any questions that might come up.  Address him directly to
the e-mail address in the header above.

For now,

Ralph - W8ROI

- - - - - - - -


On Nov 16, 2017, at 1:15 PM, Paul Birkel wrote:

> https://hackaday.com/2017/11/16/radio-apocalypse-the-emergency-broadcast-system
>  
> “The EBS system did take cues from CONELRAD, though. The basic architecture was the same — to create one nationwide network that the government could use to transmit consistent messages and instructions quickly and efficiently. Linking the national carriers into a single network was initiated by a teletype message with codeword authentication to primary stations like the Big Three networks and news services like UPI and AP. To get the attention of station employees tasked with monitoring teletypes in station newsrooms often full of the clattering devices, this Emergency Action Notification (EAN) was preceded by a line of X characters and a bunch of control-Gs to sound the teletype’s bell.”
>  
> Does that pre-EAN pattern sound right?  Anyone here with hands-on experience servicing these sorts of messages?
>  
> -----
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