Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Conelrad
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Conelrad was the ancestor of the present Emergency Alert System. Under Conelrad, one radio station in each area was assigned to stay on the air in an emergency. This station would stop transmitting on its normal frequency, and switch between 640 and 1240 KHz at irregular intervals. The idea was to give enemy bombers a moving target for radio direction-finding. Dubious at best, and abandoned in 1963 after both sides had satellites capable of spotting targets visually. Conelrad was not used for weather emergencies and was not tested routinely; I only remember hearing one test.
However, the idea may be metaphorically useful in a different realm. Our internal enemies have their own set of political target-spotting rules, essentially laid down by Saul Alinsky in his book "Rules for Radicals".
Their bombers follow this Alinsky rule:
"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it."
Okay, so we know their procedures .... Let's Conelrad 'em. Don't let Tom DeLay stand in one place broadcasting; switch frequencies. Appoint a new Majority Leader and a new Whip. Use the MSM to detect when the enemy's direction-finding pips have 'painted' the new leaders. Switch frequencies again. Rinse and repeat.
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Google will give you plenty of info on Conelrad and Alinsky.
A couple of goodies:
On Conelrad ... http://www.westgeorgia.org/conelrad/
On Alinsky ... http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/1/7/21053.shtml
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Conelrad was the ancestor of the present Emergency Alert System. Under Conelrad, one radio station in each area was assigned to stay on the air in an emergency. This station would stop transmitting on its normal frequency, and switch between 640 and 1240 KHz at irregular intervals. The idea was to give enemy bombers a moving target for radio direction-finding. Dubious at best, and abandoned in 1963 after both sides had satellites capable of spotting targets visually. Conelrad was not used for weather emergencies and was not tested routinely; I only remember hearing one test.
However, the idea may be metaphorically useful in a different realm. Our internal enemies have their own set of political target-spotting rules, essentially laid down by Saul Alinsky in his book "Rules for Radicals".
Their bombers follow this Alinsky rule:
"Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it."
Okay, so we know their procedures .... Let's Conelrad 'em. Don't let Tom DeLay stand in one place broadcasting; switch frequencies. Appoint a new Majority Leader and a new Whip. Use the MSM to detect when the enemy's direction-finding pips have 'painted' the new leaders. Switch frequencies again. Rinse and repeat.
-----
Google will give you plenty of info on Conelrad and Alinsky.
A couple of goodies:
On Conelrad ... http://www.westgeorgia.org/conelrad/
On Alinsky ... http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/1/7/21053.shtml
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