National Emergency Alarm Repeater
Encyclopedia
The National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) was a civilian emergency warning device in the United States. It was a 2-3"(5-7.5cm) square box designed to plug into a standard 110 volt power outlet to receive a special signal sent over the electric power transmission
Electric power transmission
Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
lines. Research and testing for the NEAR program was developed in 1956 during the cold war to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
broadcasts in the event of a nuclear
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
attack. The advent of the radio Emergency Broadcast System
Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System was an emergency warning system in the United States, used from 1963 to 1997, when it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.-Purpose:...
rendered NEAR obsolete, although a severe disadvantage inherent in the Emergency Broadcast system was that it required a television or radio to be turned on for a household to receive the emergency alarm, NEAR did not. Despite this advantage, upon the introduction of the Emergency Broadcast system, the stockpiled NEAR repeaters were destroyed by their respective manufacturers.
A similar program was proposed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the 1960s.
Time magazine article
A Time magazineTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
article in the November 14, 1960 issue is one of the few pieces of original documentation on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
about the device and program. The article outlines a new program that supplements the then "basically unsound" warning system consisting of localized sirens and the CONELRAD
CONELRAD
CONELRAD was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to serve two purposes; to prevent Soviet bombers from homing in on American cities by using radio or TV stations as beacons, and to provide...
radio-alert system.
The U.S. Army argued that in the age of intercontinental ballistic missiles a civil-defense warning system should be capable of warning 90% of the population within 30 seconds after a signal is given by the national civil-defense center in Colorado Springs.
The device is a buzzer installed into common outlets in homes, offices, factories and public buildings. The devices would be set off in an emergency by altering the regular AC signal being generated and transmitted by the local power companies. This would be done by having a specific alternating current of a specific frequency superimposed upon it, the imposed current would be generated by special generators and would be at 270 Hz at 3 volts RMS for 50,000cycles.
Patent
The following text from the original patent granted in 1966 describes the device and its use:
The present invention relates to electrical control circuits for producing a delayed action and controlled duration audible alarm, and more particularly to a receiving instrument preferably designed to be used in homes, offices and other buildings as a component of the National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) system and more particularly to such a receiver incorporating a solid stateSolid state (electronics)Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
device for its major control function.
The task of providing a means of alerting the Nation of an impending enemy attack or other civil disaster has been given by the United States CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
to the Office of Civil DefenseOffice of Civil DefenseThe Office of Civil Defense was an agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1961-64. It replaced the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The organization was abolished on July 20, 1979, pursuant to Executive Order 12148. It was a predecessor to the Federal Emergency...
. This office recognized early that some means had to be devised to supplement outdoor sirens in providing more effective warning since sirens often can not be heard indoors, and many suburban and rural areas are not within range of hearing of the nearest municipal sirenSirenIn Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
system. After considerable research and investigation the conclusion was reached that it would be necessary to provide an indoor system which could be coordinated with outdoor warning systems already installed.
Such a system must reach the greatest possible number of homes and still not entail undue and prohibitive costs. Therefore it has been decided to use existing electrical power lines and to provide special generators to transmit an electrical signal of controlled frequency and duration over these lines in the event of a national emergency. The generators will be used to superimpose a signal at a frequency of 270 cycles per second on the 60 cycles per second power which is normally transmitted over the power lines. A receiver unit, plugged into an ordinary A.C. wall receptacle, will respond with a loud buzzer-like sound when activated by an actuation signal of sufficient duration. ("US Patent 3,284,791")
An excerpt from a Nuclear Survival Manual
In order to be certain that even sleeping persons can be alerted, your government has perfected a device which plugs into any electric outlet serviced by a public utility. This box emits a very distinctive signal when our warning system determines that enemy missiles or aircraft are on their way for an attack. It will probably sell for a nominal price. The system is called the NEAR project. Some power stations have already been equipped to trigger the signal. Others are being similarly equipped and the entire system should be operational in the near future. The signal device is automatic and performs the function of a nuclear attack alarm clock. A person's chances of survival are enhanced by the careful planning and preparation which will enable him to make the best possible use of whatever warning time is available. ("Nuclear Survival Manual : BOSDEC - The Concrete Curtain")
Featured on History Detectives
An episode of the PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television program History Detectives
History Detectives
History Detectives is a documentary television series on PBS. A group of researchers help people to seek answers to various historical questions they have, usually centering around a family heirloom, an old house or other historic object or structure...
featured the NEAR device.
History detective Gwen Wright investigates a NEAR device marked “Essex Wire Corporation”, found by Wayne Gilbert and a friend in a box of computer parts at a hamfest
Hamfest
A Hamfest is a convention of amateur radio enthusiasts, often combining a trade show, flea market, and various other activities of interest to amateur radio operators . In the United Kingdom the term rally is more commonly used for amateur radio conventions...
in Colorado. The friend beat Gilbert to it, but soon determined that it was a "Cold War artifact", and called the next day offering to sell it to Gilbert.
Gilbert is aware that the civil defense
Civil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
triangle on the front of the device denotes programs intended to help American citizens survive a Soviet nuclear attack. Gilbert would like Wright and the History Detectives to find out if the device was mass produced, and what the device was used for.
During her investigation Wright suggests that in the early 1960s the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
debate over civil defense policies escalated following the Berlin Crisis
Berlin Crisis of 1961
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The U.S.S.R...
of 1961, initiating the age of fallout shelters and films like Duck and Cover.
Wright visited a local historian in Charlotte, Michigan
Charlotte, Michigan
Charlotte is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,074. It is the county seat of Eaton County....
with a different looking NEAR device made by a division of General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
. Charlotte, Michigan was selected as a NEAR testing site in 1960 and the device comes from the archives.
In a United States Civil Defense
United States civil defense
United States civil defense refers to the use of civil defense in the history of the United States, which is the organized non-military effort to prepare Americans for military attack...
Administration memo Wright learns the program was launched in 1956. The program tested the inexpensive internal warning system for the home and work. At the sign of an attack, NORAD in Colorado Springs would send an alert to a power company where the signal would travel through the electric transmission lines to activate the NEAR devices in homes and businesses. The device was activated by a special high frequency electric current that had to be initiated by the power company.
One of the problems with the program was there was limited instructions on what to do and no follow-up information on what was exactly happening. Also, when alarms sounded people would get in their cars and leave the area causing traffic to jam the highways. The tests, ran in different communities, identified these problems. After a full decade of Federal support for testing and development, the program was terminated.
External links
- "National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) System" The Electronic Encyclopaedia of Civil Defense and Emergency Management, Walter G. Green III, Ph.D (Editor). 25 November 2004, Sect. III: Warning Systems, Federal Warning Systems, page 9. para. 3. Mentions the N.E.A.R. device.
- Gilbert, Wayne (August 14, 2009) "The Cold War Artifact that NEAR-ly Changed My Life" Denverpost.com, 1963, www.archive.org
- Original Patent document: "US 3,284,791", of one type of NEAR receiver