[Inyo-Mono]

This will be the first time, ever, that all stations in the U.S. will send and broadcast a EAS test at the same time, in a chain so to speak, to see if they work connected. If an indidual station has problems, the FCC will investigate to see waht went wrong. Licensed radio and TV station general managers that fail to do the test as required can be arrested and face jail time.

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

If anything catastrophic happens no TV,mobile phone or radio will be working anyway.Whether we are nuked or power grid/satcom failure.So it is a redundant dummy exercise. BTW: Anyone know why blackberrys all went kaput last month? Or if any solar flare warning is in the MSM news?

[garyb]

“Chill, it's just a drill.” Was the slogan in Alaska last year when two prototype tests of the EAS system were performed.

The test today is the first ever national test of the EAS system, and it is the first national use of the “live code” EAN: Emergency Action Notification.

As the first test, the FCC has -informally- agreed that no penalties will be assessed for failures by stations or cable systems.

Stations do need to file reporting with the FCC so that failures can be identified and corrected.