High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) was a civilian emergency warning device in the United States. It was a 2-3"(5-7.5cm) square box designed to plug into a standard 110 volt power outlet to receive a special signal sent over the electric power transmission lines. Research and testing for the NEAR program was developed in 1956 during the cold war to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack. The advent of the radio Emergency Broadcast System rendered NEAR obsolete, although a severe disadvantage inherent in the Emergency Broadcast system was that it required a television or radio to be turned on for a household to receive the emergency alarm, NEAR did not. Despite this advantage, upon the introduction of the Emergency Broadcast system, the stockpiled NEAR repeaters were destroyed by their respective manufacturers.