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I became interested in the UK Civil Defence for the Cold War, as a result of my work in maintaining communication equipment. I was very curious and discovered many things that at the time were not common public knowledge. However I never disclosed this information, even to my closest friends. Twenty years have passed, the Cold War has thankfully ended without a loud bang. Through the Internet, I have discovered many people are interested in the Early Warning system. My memories are dwindling, so now seems a good time to record as much as possible. I hope you find this site interesting and would be pleased to receive feedback. Steve Scanlon |
My Involvement
The bulk of the information on this site relates to the period around the end of the 1970's and early 1980's when I worked as a engineer for "Post Office Telephones" later to become privatised and renamed "British Telecom." Therefore the information mainly covers the period from its introduction in 1962 until the equipment was replaced around 1982-3, when government spending on Civil Defence increased.
I maintained the early warning equipment in part of North Northamptonshire and South Leicestershire. The system was deployed across the whole country and administered by the Post Office, which was then a Government department. As the same equipment was used nationally, the information is relevant to the whole country. I changed jobs and location in 1981, so never worked with the replacement systems. These system details are thanks to feedback received from other people. Sadly all my notes were left behind when I left BT, so cannot add anything further to this site.