[Yosemitest]

Come on, man. Get a clue.

Emergency Alert System

The EAS is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.

The first Nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will be carried out on November 9, 2011. For more information about the test or access to the participant reporting system, please click here.

[ctdonath2]

[shrug] So what’s the problem? There’s no “off switch”, and nobody is pressing it. There is no shutdown. There is a coordinated reasonable system in place to notify the public of emergency information, and what is planned is a reasonable test thereof. Any broadcaster could refuse to participate (please do advise me of any punishments for non-cooperation, if any). Insofar as radio spectrum is a limited resource, which is recognized as nationally owned and licensed to operators, there’s nothing wrong with using 5 minutes per century to test the emergency notification system.

Now if the Obama comes on personally and uses it to deliver a political message, then we’ll have a problem.

[hoagy62]

I went through the downloadable version of the National EAS Test handbook that the FCC made available to all broadcast stations. Anyone can read it. It tells you exactly what to expect and what you'll hear when they conduct it.

There are two types of stations, 'participating' and 'non-participating'. 'Participating' stations are those that are already part of the system.

ALL stations will transmit the three EAS "chirps" that you hear when they test or activate the system. Those chirps are telling the EAS encoder what type of alert it is. You will then hear the old EBS Attention Signal, that annoying two-tone screech that we all know and dislike.

If you're listening to a 'participating' station, you'll her the following:

This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. [PAUSE] This is only a Test. The message you are hearing is part of a nationwide live code Test of Emergency Alert System capabilities. This Test message has been initiated by national alert and warning authorities in coordination with Emergency Alert System Participants, including broadcast, cable, satellite, and wireline participants in your area. Had this been an actual emergency, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by emergency information, news, or instructions. Remember, this is only a Test. The EAS is also used by State, Territorial, Tribal, and local authorities to alert and warn the public and provide important emergency response information. Remember, this is only a Test. Please stay with this Test message as it will be repeated… [PAUSE]

The message will continue until the test is over.

Being a former broadcaster, I read the message at 'broadcast speed', making sure to enunciate all the words like I would for reading copy. If that pacing is used, you'll probably hear it three times in the 3 minutes of the test.

If you're listening to a 'Non-participating' station, you'll hear this:

"This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. This test will last for approximately three minutes. During this test, most television and radio providers will remain on the air to participate in the test. This is (station name). We will be discontinuing programming for the duration of the test. Our programming will resume at the end of the test, in approximately three minutes."

The announcement will be repeated once, then the station will go silent until the test is over.