[Milsurplus] Conelrad

[Hue Miller]

I heard a Conelrad test in Seattle, probably 1961, because i recall it was within
a year of the Bay of Pigs invasion. I thought it remarkable how screwed up
the modulation was, the audio of the announcement was awful. It was funny,
and not real inspiring.  

This was the era of  the "giants of AM rocknroll radio" in the battle of the 
DJs and ratings. I recall the local top of the heap, KJR 950, had a attention
getter where they'd call out to extraterrestial space travelers, and then turn
off the carrier for one minute to listen for replies. A high school kid with
an 811- powered Tesla coil rebuilt it for 950 kcs. and replied with morse
code to one of KJR's calling-all-aliens. KJR's switchboard lit up with
excited callers reporting they'd heard something. KJR scheduled a 
welcoming picnic in a park, with area  roped off for a landing place
for any flying saucer. Turnout was pretty good, but no saucers or
obvious aliens. How i know this: i heard several of KJR's outer-space
CQs, and 30 years later i got the rest of the story from the engineer-
fellow who as a high school student had pulled off the caper.
-Hue Miller