[GreenKeys] UPI Retype

[John W9DDD]

Wow, I dodged that one.  I had been working at channel 3 in Madison WI up until November of 1970..  I had taken a job in Bogotá Colombia.  I was there all of 1971.  I never heard about this event until now.  

Saturday morning programming was run from the transmitter site with just one engineer on duty.  We had an EBS receiver at the transmitter, but I don't recall having any tapes to use in case it wasn't a test.  I wonder how my former coworkers dealt with situation. 

John, W9DDD


> On Dec 4, 2021, at 8:21 AM, Robert Nickels <ranickels at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 12/4/2021 12:10 PM, tony.podrasky wrote:
>> original copy of the Teletype printout of the shooting of JFK.
> 
> That was way before my time but I was working part-time at the local radio station when the Feb. 20 1971 EBS false alarm was sent.   By the time I got in for my Saturday afternoon shift the excitement was all over, but I had all those teletype printouts from the AP wire and the opened EBS packet because I read through them between records.    Now I wish I'd hung onto them!
> 
> For those who may not remember, I'll paste part of the wikipedia summary of the event below.
> 
> 73, Bob W9RAN
> 
> A properly authenticated Emergency Action Notification was incorrectly sent to United States broadcast stations at 9:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 20, 1971.   At the usual time a weekly EAN test was performed, teletype operator W.S. Eberhart had three tapes in front of him: a test tape, and two tapes indicating a real emergency, instructing the use of EAN Message #1, and #2, respectively. He inadvertently used the wrong tape, which used an incorrect codeword, "HATEFULNESS". The message ordered stations to cease regular programming immediately, and begin an Emergency Action Notification using Message #1.   Message 1 stated that regular programming had been interrupted at the request of the United States government, but was not specific about the cause. A cancellation message was sent at 9:59 a.m. EST, but it used the same codeword as the original message.   A cancellation message with the correct codeword was not sent until 10:13 a.m. EST. After 40 minutes and six incorrect or improperly formatted cancellation messages, the accidental activation was officially terminated.
> 
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