Radio silence

: "For the album by Boris Grebenshchikov, see Radio Silence.": "For the song by Thomas Dolby, see The Golden Age of Wireless."

In telecommunications, radio silence is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area stop transmitting. The radio stations include anything capable of transmitting a radio signal. "Radio silence" generally applies to the military, where any radio transmission may reveal troop positions, either audibly from the sound of talking, or by its use as a homing signal.

In the USA, CONELRAD, EBS and EAS were also a way of maintaining radio silence, mainly in broadcasting, in the event of an attack. This occurred after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in World War II, having used AM radio station KGU in Honolulu as a homing signal.

Radio silence can also be maintained for other purposes, such as for highly sensitive radio astronomy, or in marine communications to allow faint distress calls to be heard. In the latter case, the controlling station can order other stations to stop transmitting with the proword "SILENCE SILENCE SILENCE". (The word uses the French pronunciation, "see-LAHNCE."). Once the need for radio silence is finished, the controlling station lifts radio silence by the prowords "SILENCE FINI." [U.S. Coast Guard, "Radiotelephone Handbook," COMDTINST M2300.7]

References

ee also

*Guard band
*EMCON
*The Zone of Silence
*United States National Radio Quiet Zone