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Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN)
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The Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) was a radio communications system designed to relay emergency messages between strategic military areas in the continental United States. The system was claimed to be immune to the effects of high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) energy surges caused by nuclear detonations in the ionosphere, which would disrupt the nation's electric power line transmission capability, cripple electronic devices, and adversely affect skywave communications networks based on conventional electronics. A failure of such equipment would prevent timely communications among top military and civilian leaders and strategic Air Force locations and prevent U.S. assessment and retaliation during an attack.
The GWEN system was a network of relay nodes, receive-only stations, and input/output stations. Each relay node consisted of a guyed radio tower facility similar to those used by commercial AM broadcast transmitters. Relay nodes provided essential connections with adjacent nodes in the network. Each GWEN station operated intermittently in the LF radio band at 150-175 kHz. The peak broadcast power for each GWEN tower was between 2,000 and 3,000 watts, depending on local soil conditions.
After the end of the Cold War, and because of lingering protests over radio frequency interference and adverse health effects (including claims that GWEN could be used for "mind control"), the network was defunded in 1994.
[Note: The GWEN frequency table in the referenced Wikipedia article appears to be incorrect, since it lists frequencies in the 285-325 kHz band, which is not the band used by GWEN.]
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Frequency Bands |
| Band | Use | Service11 | Table |
| 150 - 175 kHz | Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) | Fixed | F |
Associated Files:
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