Radiotelephone Abbreviations

I have here the March 31st 1942 edition of Army Air Forces Radiotelephone Procedures. It's a fine and condensed tome, mostly concerned with wind and weather reporting than technical nuts and bolts. But it has a pretty interesting list of Abbreviations in Appendix VIII

It has military only abbreviations that deviate from common nomenclature. Alabama for example is abbreviated as "ALA" instead of "AL."  The initials "AC" stand for "Altocumulus" instead of Alternating Current. Some are common ANT stands for Antenna, GND for Ground and FEB for February.It also in Appendix X gives a completely different phonetic alphabet than the "Alpha-Bravo" we're all accustomed to. It's all very interesting.  I list below several radio-specific abbreviations of note:

• ANT - Antenna
• ATT - American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
• BCN - Beacon
• BDC - Broadcast
• BEBNR - Beacon Light burning but not revolving
• BENBU - Beacon light not burning
• BRONO - Broadcast not Operating
• BROOK - Broadcast Resumed Operation
• CKT - Circuit
• FANOT - Fan-Type Marker inoperative
• FAROK - Fan-Type Marker resumed normal operations
• FQCY - Frequency
• GND - Ground
• NORDO - No Radio
• RAOBS - Radiometrograph observations
• RANOT - Radio range not operating
• RDO - Radio
• RLA - Relay
• RUTEL - Reference Telegram From Your Office
• TELNO - Telegraph (radio ) Communications Interrupted
• TELOK - Telegraph radio ) Communications Resumed
• TELRY - Telegraph Reply
• TELFO - Telephone
• TLTP - Teletype
• TYPNO - Teletype Communications Interrupted
• TYPOK - Teletype Communications Resumed
• TWIZN - Twilight Zone
• ZONOT - Zone Marker Inoperative

Airforce attacks U.S. radio station

This was almost certainly an accident... but then again the CIA used to test psychotropic drugs on unsuspecting Californians. You never know with these government types. Totally different value system than a normal Joe.Historically, the U.S Air Force has pioneered in the development and use of electronic warfare against civilian targets and populations, notably in the NATO war in Yugoslavia. And Yea for that, I understand that we perpetually need to have the bigger stick whether we're talking softly at the time or not. http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenews31.html

But here's the story. According to Jack George WJKM, in the "attack",

"All the radio station's lines were knocked out. Several power transformers were blown several blocks away from the studios (smoke seen billowing out of one). All phone lines at the newspaper (The Hartsville Vidette), the local farm co-op and all other phones in this small radius were knocked out! Radio station transmitter lost all MOSFETS and the output - tuning network. All computers at WJKM lost motherboards, network cards etc. ISDN was knocked out. Most all the equipment Zephyr codec and EAS all knocked out."

From the known profile of electronic weaponry, the electronic attack upon WJKM appears to have been caused by a tactical electromagnetic weapon, emitting a directed electromagnetic , pulse. Electronic weapons with this capability are known to exist but are typically not testing in populated areas because they break stuff.

It's an oogy-boogy story and it's roots are spurious but, the station has since been bought by G&L Aircasters and and the calls changed to WTNK-AM. This leaves us with only weird-ass web pages to research from, and a single new story carried by a local Chattanooga paper. The other side of the story is that Jack George is a deadbeat and that he owes money to a couple engineers on that side of the Mississippi. Their assessment is as follows:

"...determined that the mica cap had been destroyed by someone pushing the audio on the transmitter beyond the limits of the system. The tuning unit was old and the Mica capacitors having a great deal of age on them could not take the peak voltages created by extensive over-modulation."

So did Jack break his own radio station? Did the Airforce test an EM weapon and accidentally knock him off the air? I don't know. Jack isn't the only radioman who owes money to his engineers, and the Airforce certainly blows stuff up by accident sometimes. Neither type likes to fess up so the mystery remains.