The coded messages and secret signals for "holy crap, we've got trouble"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve always been fascinated by the codes and signals used by groups to indicate that there’s serious trouble going down. Generally, these messages are coded so that the public doesn’t become alarmed, but understood by the people who need to know what to do in an emergency situation.

For example, at my old high school, in the case of a serious emergency going down (with Columbine still fresh in the minds of the public) students were taught a code - if the PA announced “Mr. Woods, report to the office” four times in a row, it was code to get into a classroom, lock the doors, close the blinds and duck under desks. Since then, I always thought it was really cool to learn that sort of secret emergency signal.

One of my favourites is the tune Stars and Stripes Forever within the circus. There’s a long-standing tradition in circuses that the band only strikes up this tune in times of emergency (usually a fire, like in the disastrous Hartford circus fire of 1944, where the song was played). All of the staff are trained to get people the heck out of the tent the moment they hear this tune.

Another goes back to carny lore, where the shouting of “Hey, Rube!” was a rallying cry for carnies when they were in trouble or when a fight broke out. Carnivals were generally pretty rough, loud and rowdy affairs, and it was pretty common for the locals to want to have a go with the carnival folk, so “Hey Rube!” was essentially a cry for help for other carnies to come in and help their brethren.

In pro wrestling (itself passed down from the carny tradition), the referee is basically an insider there to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch, and will have a lot of whispered conversations with the wrestlers. Now, it’s wrestlers’ jobs to pretend to act hurt, so if a wrestler is legitimately hurt by a move, he’ll tell the referee that he’s “shooting” (i.e. real) vs. “selling” (i.e. fake). The referee then has a hand signal that he gives to the announcers, letting them know that someone’s actually injured, and EMT’s come out.

You hear a lot of urgent-sounding PA calls with coded messages in places like department stores (I heard “Code Blue” in a K-Mart once - the heck?), hospitals and on subways - I’m sure there’s people out there who could share from experience on that. I’m from Toronto and I know that there’s a lot of coded messages on the Toronto subway (things like “288 Bloor, 288 Bloor, Call Control”) which I’ve actually looked up, and I’ve found the codes - generally innocuous stuff like calls for janitors, but other times more serious stuff, with a number of codes used for jumpers.

In maritime tradition, there are a number of codes for distress - a call of “Mayday”, a morse code signal of SOS, orange smoke, a combination of the “N” and “C” signalling flags for “In Distress” or a variety of other flag meanings for signs of danger or help, tying a knot in a flag or flying a flag upside-down are all signs of trouble.

In aviation, there are a couple of emergency frequencies used - 121.5 MHz for civilians, also known as International Air Distress (IAD) and 243.0 MHz for military use, also known as Military Air Distress (MAD).

On the ground, there’s a number of signals you can use to show that you need help. Generally, anything in a group of 3 is understood as a call for help - three flares sent up, flashing something three times (or … — …, morse code for SOS), a grouping of three rocks, or three whistles. In the UK and the Alps, 6 of something is known as the sign of distress.

Now, this is all stuff I’ve cobbled together from online, so I fully expect people more versed on these topics to pick apart everything I’ve said, but go ahead and share the secret little codes you know meaning that trouble’s going down.

2

This is a part of the book “Choke” by Chuck Palahniuk, where the narrator’s mother was obsessed with teaching him “duress codes” when he was a child. She would make him memorize dozens of different weird signals that would be broadcast over the P.A. in a public place like a store or office building. But I think most of them were made up by the author. They were too specific to seem realistic, like “Mr. Blue” for someone choking and “Mr. Green” for someone committing suicide and “Mr Black” for something else…I highly doubt there are that many different “duress codes.” One of the ones I remember from the book was “if you’re in a hotel lobby and you hear the Blue Danube Waltz, get out!” I wonder if that has any basis in reality.

3

Back in the sixtys at the A & P, the coded message I had to respond to was… Aisle 3 WM…which meant with a mop.

4

Back when working in retail, there were these innocuous bell chimes that were codes for different managers, security, etc. It was usually an initial ding indication what category, then the specific person. Like ding ding (manager) pause ding ding ding (jewelry). When shopping, you don’t really know them, but when you work there, you are aware of them.

Back when I was dealing poker, a Code 1 was a bathroom break.

You’d probably find the Waffle House grill cooks codes interesting. J Walk Blog – Finance | Home | Sport | Travel | Work

5

In the days of radio, NBC had its famous 3 chimes for identification, but during the 1930s and 40s, a 4 note chime was used to notify stations down the net to stand by for a major news flash. One instance was early in the morning of June 6, 1944, for the news of the D-Day landings.

CBS’ flasghip in New York, meanwhile, had a code for engineering staff. If all was well, they’d identify as “WABC…New York.” (Yes, WABC; there was as yet no ABC.) If some technical difficulty was afoot, “This is WABC in the City of New York,” was the signal for engineers to report in.

6

Back when I worked in a doctor’s office located in the medical wing of the hospital, we had to learn Doctor Codes.

7

Among the Rainbow Family, there’s a couple of calls that might fit what you’re looking for. “Shanti sena” is a call for assistance, whether it be a minor or major problem. “Six up” is more specifically a warning that police are in the area.

8

I heard that when you’re in a department store and “Mrs. Riley” is called over the PA, it’s code for security or a shoplifter or something like that. Has anyone else heard this?

9

If you’re on the London Underground (and I’d imagine much of the British Rail system) and hear Inspector Sands paged to anywhere, it means something is up - I’ve heard it means a fire, or just general trouble. (cite)

10

That’s fascinating–I remember hearing those in department stores all the time when I was a kid (back in the 80s). I always asked my parents/grandparents what they meant, and they explained it more or less as you did, but without the detail. I could never understand how they could really convey any significant amount of information, but now I see–thanks! I think my folks mentioned that a similar system was used in the factory where they (and my grandparents, and my aunt…) worked as well.

Thanks!

11

In the Andromeda Strain, from memory I think it was “We have a fire”. (or bushfire)

12

I’ve posted this before but I was standing in a tube station once and there was an announcement which sounded very stilted and pre-recorded, and was in a plummy accent instead of just the usual casual Londoner accent of the regular announcer. The announcement was something like “would Mistah Brown please come to the control room?” It was completely obviously code for something and sure enough we were evacuated moments later.

13

I’ve heard a PA in a bar for a “Mr Mike Hunt, telephone call for Mike Hunt”, this was code for the receptionist being a gullible tool.

On the topic of aviation, 406MHz is now the preferred emergency beacon frequency. The frequency is monitored by satellite and the transmission may contain a GPS position as well as a code that can be linked to details of the beacon’s owner 121.5 and 243.0 are still the emergency calling frequencies for voice.

Aircraft transponders have manually set codes used to distinguish each aircraft. The code is given by ATC prior to departure. There are also emergency codes that can be set at any time, they include 7700 (emergency), 7600 (radio failure), and 7500 (unlawful interference).

Marine CH16 (156.8 MHz) is the emergency calling channel for water craft. The channel is used for initial contact between any parties but they are expected to take further conversation to another channel. There is also a 3 minute silent period at the top and bottom of the hour so any emergency calls at that time won’t be stepped on.

My wife used to work at a jewelery store, if a staff member mentioned a particular name, it meant something was going down, e.g., suspicious person, credit card fraud, etc.

14

I heard a pre-recorded call for Inspector Sands on the Tube a few weeks ago, and must have been looking a bit concerned because a member of LT staff volunteered the information that it was just a drill. I was quite disappointed, I thought I was going to have an exciting adventure!

15

In the 1970s my grandparents were stewards at the Festival Hall in London. The code for “evacuate now” - most probably due to a fire or a bomb warning - they told me, was “Mr Brown is in the green room”.

16

Flying the US flag upside down is code for distress.

17

Kind of along the same lines:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/keyfacts/stories/today_programme.shtml

18

And there was me thinking there was absolutely no point to John Humphrys whatsoever.

19

I’ll have to look when I get home for the list; I did a few days working in a local hospital last November and December for some clinical training, and we were given a list of codes to memorize. The only one I remember is Code Red, for a fire. Oddly enough, a cardiac arrest was not the stereotypical Code Blue, but something else that escapes me right now. We had a lady come in with a dissected aorta early Saturday morning, and around 2 in the afternoon, she arrested. When that call went out, everyone in the ER knew who it was.

My fire department and rescue squad both use the simple ‘Mayday’ for someone injured/trapped/in trouble. Anything else goes out as plain language.

Oh, back to the hospital list: Code Brown was used for any kind of bodily fluid situation, be it blood, spittle, etc. It wasn’t reserved for only waste.

20

Here is a list of ten codes that some police departments use today. My department does not use them. Instead of 10-00 you would probably hear something like “Holy shit somebody shot Bob.”