Editing CONELRAD (section)

=== False alarms ===
On May 5, 1955, the [[Continental Air Defense Command]] Western Division went to yellow alert for 3 to 10 minutes (depending on the alerted state), beginning at 10:40 AM PDT. The alert was raised by a Canadian radar emplacement which was unaware of an outbound United States [[Boeing B-47 Stratojet|B-47 bomber]] training exercise, due to communication failures. A yellow alert meant "attack expectable", and the word was sent to government and civil defense organizations. In the seven-minute window, the city of [[Oakland, California|Oakland]], the Sacramento Capitol Building, and others quickly sounded their alert sirens. In contrast, the City of Sacramento civil defense director waited for further confirmation before sounding the citywide siren; ultimately, he never did so.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/80325430|title='Yellow Alert' Sounds in Pacific Coast Cities as U.S. Jets Fail to Get Proper Radar Clearance in Canada|date=May 6, 1955|work=Statesman Journal|access-date=22 May 2018|pages=19|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The alert was not acted on at all in Colorado due to the short length, and in Nevada, there was no alert because the person responsible for acting on it "did not know what to do with it".<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/162732404|title=Mixup Causes Air Alert in West|date=May 6, 1955|work=Arizona Daily Star|access-date=22 May 2018|page=1|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana, a yellow alert was not passed along to civil authorities at all, and those states issued a "white" (military emergency) alert to units in their state instead. Even with the short alert window, many radio and television stations went off the air in accordance with CONELRAD procedure, but the alert was not long enough for stations to start broadcasting on the two authorized CONELRAD frequencies.<ref name=":1" />

On the evening of November 5, 1959, WJPG, the CONELRAD control station for northeast Wisconsin and Upper Michigan was incorrectly sent an alert status message, "This is an air defense radio alert", rather than what should have been sent for a test, "This is an air defense line check." All three of [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]]'s television stations ([[WFRV-TV]], [[WLUK-TV]], and [[WBAY-TV]]), as well as Green Bay radio stations [[WTAQ|WBAY]] and [[WNFL|WJPG]] (and other Upper Michigan radio stations) were immediately taken off line as preparations were made for high priority stations to begin broadcasting on the two authorized CONELRAD AM frequencies (which in that area would force [[WOMT]], a station in nearby [[Manitowoc, Wisconsin|Manitowoc]] at 1240 AM, off the air). The transmission error was realized and CONELRAD alert preparation (and its media blackout) reversed for affected stations about 20 minutes later.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/287867856|title=SAGE Alert Causes Brief TV Blackout|date=November 6, 1959|work=The Post-Crescent|access-date=21 May 2018|page=A1|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

A very similar false attack alarm was sent to radio and television stations through CONELRAD's replacement, the [[Emergency Broadcast System]], at 9:33 AM EST on Saturday, February 20, 1971. This message was sent by accident instead of the usual weekly EAN test.