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Civil Defense black box

Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:44 pm
by Fearguy1234
Lately I have found a black, civil defense box in my high school, mounted in the wall inside a hallway to the gym. The box originally had a patch of the civil defense logo on the front, but had been taken off just recently so when you see the pictures, try to imagine a patch on the front. The box has a communications attachment built into the side, which means it could have been used as a radio, or something else. My high school is very old, built in the early 50s, so it obviously went through civil defense times, so I was wondering what it was used for. Any ideas? The pictures are turned over, so turn your head to the right to properly look at it.

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:06 am
by Unit of Civil Defense
It's obviously been gutted of what ever transceiver equipment may have been in place....the coax connector is a dead give away.
Was your high school a designated fall out shelter? Some, but not all, fall out shelters had 2-way radio equipment such as a gonset communicator which may have been too big to have been placed in this box.
Another possibility, and this is a stretch,.....
If your high school use to broadcast its home Basketball games on a local AM radio station, then the box would have been what the radio engineers would have used to tie the mics that the play by play announcers where using into a dedicated phone line back to the radio studio and the radio station back to the play by play announcers via their head phones.....basically a small transceiver that fit into that box...the coax connector that is pictured could have been for the head phones verses using a head phone jack(s) that are more susceptible to wear and tear than the coax connector. .

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 12:52 pm
by Fearguy1234
The box is right beside the gym in the hallway, so broadcasting is possible. The school is in the middle of nowhere with just trees and houses nearby, so I dont know about fallout shelters in it or nearby. I dont know how much history has been kept about civil defense in the school, or the county. I might ask a janitor about it, but I think it was some sort of warning equipment, but I dont know.

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 1:10 pm
by lilrags44
With any luck, you might be able to go to your city library and look thru a news paper archive. If you can, looks thru the beginning times of CD and see if your HS is mentioned. My library is funny; when they finally got tired of bring books up for me, they just took me down to the basement, and let me work beside a Microfiche machine. Funny thing, there was a CD water drum under the table ;)

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 5:17 am
by Fearguy1234
Thanks! Thinking about doing one of these days! 😂

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 5:40 pm
by nvanw27
seen one of those somewhere before, but no idea where........

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:31 pm
by jacob585
I do think it might be a old civil defense first aid kit but i dont think so

Re: Civil Defense black box

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:32 pm
by Chem_Boffin_6589
jacob585 wrote: ↑
Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:31 pm
I do think it might be a old civil defense first aid kit but i dont think so
It has a coaxial cable connector on it so I'd be very surprised if it were a first aid kit.