Talk:Emergency Alert System

Outdated Logo

If you go to the EAS website, the logo that is included in this article is no longer used. It should probably be deleted, or at least specified that its the old logo. --71.120.74.68 (talk) 21:47, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Midnight Tests

I leave the radio on all night-I sleep to it- and I am very often awakened by the loud noises- they sound like nothing more than that. I sometimes get scared because before the announcement comes on, I never know what they will say.

I understand you perfectly but thats the purpose of this system. Imagine you hear the signal and think "Oh, its just a test!" and ignore it, but it is an real emergency alert. Fatal. --DocBrown 01:27, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

This is a great theory, but the fact remains that the system has never actually alerted anyone in advance of a disaster of any type. In fact, it is the least-used of any feature in radio or TV.

EAS hijacked

During an Emergency Alert System message (an extremely loud and annoying hijack of all channels), for about two minutes, the local cable TV (on every channel), local time around 10:45 AM, location Newark,NJ, BROADCAST ADVERTISEMENTS APPARENTLY ORIGINATING FROM A CHRISTIAN RADIO STATION. This system sucks big time. WAS 4.250 16:13, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Funny how this system was started the same time the goverment started putting up E.L.F. toweres all over the U.S.. It's also wierd that at this time both the U.S and the Soviets were testing what the effects of certian frequencies had on people. Now you can't ever go more than one month with out hearing it. Now if I wanted to put a subliminal message out with out getting caught and reach a lot of people how could I go about this. Think about that for a while or how E.L.F. suppossably have no purpose and how during every natural disaster or even 9/11 no one heard this broadcast cuase it's never played.68.184.255.67JǑkęŘXʒɶⁿ13

Odd how we have to scroll to see Joker's comment. I just deleted the space that was put before it. On a more pertinent note, I need to go find the schedule of EAS tests for the Pittsburgh EAS region. I have gone at least since Dec 15th or thereabouts without seeing any EAS traffic. Not that I'm missing it, but...--Coryma 23:53, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

EAS and 9/11

The article gives no explanation from the EAS why no alert was given on 9/11. It seems odd that after decades of testing a network for the event of a national attack, that it would fail when the attack came. EAS should have a lot of explainging to do. 65.6.13.200 19:09, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

An often asked question. See my answer below. Bush could have, but instead went to Barksdale and taped a message, then to Offutt. Had it been nuclear, I think he have done it live from AF1. Newsandrumor 01:38, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

EAS Decoder Proggy

I Wanna Read What Those Tones Are Playing Back Because On KSPS Spokane They Dont Mute The Data And It Bothers My Modded TTY Program, Its In A Different Format So I Need To Find A Program That Can Read It. Offensiveandconfusing 18:25, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Edits by User:Calltech Reverted

Same as in Call centre, perfectly legitimate links were removed by User:Calltech. One was a non-profit organisation that had useful information on it and the other was a public sector article that was re-published by a private sector organisation, which also posts links to the Canadian government. His purported objection was that the links were filled with advertising. I invite anyone to visit these websites. Yes, these folks probably finance their web efforts with some ads that appear on the site. Big deal. The information was perfectly valid and useful for people interested in the subject matter. I don't see the big deal with ads on the side, especially if the contents are informative.--Achim 22:46, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

External Link Removal

• Removed YouTube links. Don't need 3 different examples of the same EAS message. Links do not provide any unique information. One example starts with an ad and the second is a home made recording WP:RS#YouTube. Calltech 12:08, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

• Removed link to Cybertelecom.org - added by User:Rcannon100 who is a director of Cybertelecom. Please submit through Talk page before adding links to your own sites WP:EL. Calltech 14:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

• Removed link to haas.ca website - added by unnamed editor User:70.24.131.46 whose only contribution appears to be adding links to Wikipedia to haas.ca (his own website). Please submit through Talk page before adding links to your own sites. WP:EL. Calltech 14:16, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Primary Entry Point

More material is needed on what an EAN is (Presidential Message, sort of) and how it gets distributed via PEP. EAN/PEP IS the reason EAS even exists. Newsandrumor 00:02, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Red Screen Tests?

Can somebody please explain to me those "red screen" tests of the EAS that I am seeing more frequently, especially between midnight and 3 AM? There are no tones or announcements that this is a test, but there is text on the screen, which is white text on a red screen (hence why I call it the "red screen test"). Sometimes it says, "This Station Is Participating In A Required Weekly test of the EAS", or it just says "IDEA/ONICS EAS." Whenever it goes on it startles me sh*tless nonetheless... I wish I had more information on it though.

IDEA/ONICS is an EAS ENDEC maker. Overnight RWT's aren't uncommon. You maybe saw an all channel interrupt on a cable system. Most broadcasters and cable just use a screen crawl. I don't remember if cable systems are required to send the rwt tone burst, because nobody monitors them. Broadcasters have to because their monitoring assignment won't get the daisy chain on their ENDEC. FWIW I wrote a fairly long article on EAS at E2. everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1002623 Last entry. When time permits I'll do a little here. Most people don't get the EAS, and the Feds don't help much. If you see EMERGENCY ACTION NOTIFICATION then worry. You'd then very well might see 15 mins. of red scroll with no audio, then if you're very lucky bad audio of the President of the US (no video most likely). The test you saw was designed to make sure (although no one really is) that audio of Pres. would make it from White House to FEMA to PEP Stations to maybe another radio station then to the cable system and then a long period of silence or an audio message repeated over and over until all downstream stations join the network then maybe Presidential audio, probably of a bad phone patch from Air Force One, telling you about what you saw on CNN. If Bush had felt he needed to on the way from FL to Barksdale on 9/11 he'd have used and EAS/EAN phone patch from AF1.

That week they sent the engineers at the PEP stations to go live at the transmitter sites, expecting they might have to do it. For a while I though they might to. If you look at the EAS Handbooks, the FCC loves creepy red/black lettering. http://www.wibble.co.uk/archives/nanog/2001/msg03117.html

Back in the day some cable companies like HBO participated in EBS voluntarily, but the cable interrupt is designed so you wouldn't miss an EAN if you were watching Pay Per View or some non-participating network. Newsandrumor 01:33, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Definately an all-channel interrupt I see, very interesting stuff though I bet the interruption of PPV/HBO paid programming pissed off many before on-demand existed. ^_^

EAN/EAT

Corrected the acronyms. Currently, the most succinct official source(s) will be the FCC Handbooks avail. via the external links. Newsandrumor 18:45, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

DBS reqirements?

Hi. I was just wondering because I haven't personally heard anywhere that DBS services such has Directv will have to start doing the EAS alerts. I know someone on here probably knows more about this, because I don't. Will it be like the cable systems, with an all-channel override? I've been a DTV customer and I would be glad if they do start this.

The full EAS test audio

I made that "Full EAS Transmission" sample audio, combined from the sounds found in the entire article, but it has come to my attention that the shorter "wavering" tones are only sounded after the announcement, and the longer "wavering" tones only before. I've gotten some input on my talk page on this, anyone have any verification?

I think the EAS system, in my opinion, since everyone else is throwing in theirs, is a governmental conspiracy that originated from the ancient CONELRAD system. The CONELRAD system was actually somewhat revolutionary, even though many people didn't believe it would do much. Since then, the government has remade the CONELRAD/Emergency Broadcast System/Emergency Alert System into a newly-revealed Digital Emergency Alert System. OK, this seems weird, but it's clear that even TESTS of the EAS are scaring the crap out of people nowadays. I remember the first time I saw one of those things I had nightmares for a week. (Hey, I was, like, 6...) Anyways, it seems that the fact that the TESTS THEMSELVES do not incorporate any nationwide standards - wouldn't it be more comforting if the tests were MANDATED because they were ACTUAL nationwide activations? People would get scared, yes, but it seems something like making monthly random nationwide "tests" would be more convenient, and notifying all radio/TV stations afterwards to check if the test succeeded. It would be more risky legally, but it would be a LOT more secure. How would we know if the President could send audio across the nation through the EAS? There is no way to thoroughly test that UNLESS you actually test the audio system!

Now, after all that complicated mumbo-jumbo, look back... is it really safe to allow the primary stations to run tests on their own that do not incorporate the equipment that would be needed in case the EAS was really activated? Sure, we know you can make the basics work, but if a city (or even a whole state) was left on a limb while the President talked about an upcoming nuclear war that doesn't get transferred due to faulty non-tested audio transfer software, that risks lives.

I'm only 15. I'm willing to admit that. I'm also willing to admit there are a few idiots in the government today. But that doesn't mean that I should be able to revolutionize the EAS before our friends in the White House do. Something is up here, the EAS isn't meant for what it looks like it is. To my knowledge, the EAS has never been activated nationally. Let's think this over: the EAS could be some sort of plan that, as someone else here said, could broadcast a sham emergency or subliminal message to the ENTIRE NATION, while leaving the benefit of small-area activations to seem like the EAS is useful. The EAS has been activated countless times in city and state emergencies, and it saved lives. But as this article says, the EAS was NEVER ACTIVATED during 9/11. WHY? Maybe the WTC was the home base, as (an uncited) part of the article says, and the EAS couldn't get through. But due to the design of the system, that's BS. HOWEVER... what if 9/11 really WAS a governmental conspiracy, too? It's the perfect plan, in that case. They couldn't notify the nation (not even NYC) of the emergency because the home base was in WTC. Unbreakable argument there? Not yet. There would OBVIOUSLY be a home base in the White House (or the Capitol) unless the person who designed the system was a complete dumbass. It really doesn't hold any water!

Wow, sorry for that rant. StonedChipmunk 00:21, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Sources Needed

This material: "Several state officials including New York Governor George Pataki, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and U.S. Congressmen and Senators have questioned members of the FCC on why the Emergency Alert System was not implemented nationwide on radio and television stations during the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks where official government information is/was supposed to be distributed in place of local/network programming or newscasts. The EAS was to have issued such messages that the United States was under attack, but no warning broadcast was issued, even in New York City. This was because of the main feed of the Emergency Alert System was on one of the towers in the World Trade Center.[citation needed]"

is somewhat misleading. For the sake of brevity, understand that except for engineers at the PEP stations, very few broadcasters even fully understand EAS. However, EAS IS NOT: An attack warning system (nuclear/any attack warning was discontinued after an accidental attack warning was issued in error in the 1970's). It isn't a broadcast system like EBS was. EBS was designed to go on air in the 72-24 hr. period before which an attack might be expected and remain on air. Now only the EAN/Presidential Message function does what EBS and Conelrad were designed for. EAS was built to issue quick warnings to fan out as far as possible and to advise protective action. The Governor could have issued a statewide broadcast on 9/11. A CEM or EVI (civil emergency or evacuation immediate message) could have been sent via EAS and multiple other means. The 9/11 EAS issue has been done to death in broadcast mags. Because the whole story was broadcast from the outset on national media, there was no need to warn people of what they already knew. As to protective action, the people in the towers who needed warned weren't busy tuning their radios. Back in the day, cities like DC had Bell and Lights systems in office buildings, ample outdoor warning sirens, a fairly robust NAWAS warning circuit, and MUZAK participated in national EBS. In the eighties this went away due to funding. Many have adovcated bringing all this back, which is frankly not a bad idea.

The only mandatory alerts are Presidential messages. This is only in a extreme emergency where the Pres. must speak to the nation quickly and can't wait for normal broadcast access. Had the W. House been struck, Bush could have done a phone patch from AF1 direct via WHCA to WABC's transmitter in Lodi, NJ. If WABC was on air (I assume so) Pataki could phone the control room and have them do an alert. Any stations monitoring can carry the WABC Pataki alert, but there's no law to make them. However, it should be noted that engineers at the PEP stations were sent to live at the transmitter sites for 48-72 hrs. nationwide, in case Bush wanted to do an EAN. Those wishing to edit the EAS content I'd respectfully suggest you READ THE HANDBOOKS FIRST.

This is the way the system used to work in DC and other big cities. http://coldwar-c4i.net/WAWAS/wawas-2.html .Based upon the wisdom of the federal government, funding was cut, assuming it would not be necessary to issue such warning warnings or get them to bldg. PA systems if people weren't tuned to radio. They were wrong. My one word answer to homeland security: put it back the way it was (about 40 yrs. ago). Newsandrumor 19:26, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Sources Needed, 2

Here is the source re. the issues involving why a national EAN wasn't issued on 9/11. http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/rw-eas2.shtml . one reason is a meteroite didn'rt strike the oif this country didn't crash on it. "This was because of the main feed of the Emergency Alert System was on one of the towers in the World Trade Center." There is no 'main feed' as such. WABC's (PEP) transmitter in Lodi is linked via the PEP conference circuits to Mount Weather EOC and from there to WHCA. "The EAS is activated by an order from the President to the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) duty officer or the President's Communications Officer (PCO) through the FOC/FAOC. The FOC and/or FAOC authenticate the request and establish the Primary Entry Point (PEP) conference. The national level EAS consists of a nationwide network of radio broadcast AM and FM stations; TV broadcast stations (audio only) and cable systems (audio only)." "The primary FEMA Operations Center is located at the FEMA Mount Weather Emergency Assistance Center (MWEAC) in Bluemont, Virginia. The FEMA Alternate Operations Center (FAOC) is located within the Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) Detachment’s Operations Center (MOC) in Thomasville Georgia." http://localweb.tnema.org/Library/Telecom/nawasman.pdf

One of the biggest limitations of national EAS as a last resort system is that you'd have been looking at a blank TV screen with a text crawl while the TV stations carry audio only from WABC or their PEP radio station feed. Newsandrumor 20:49, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

WorldSpace in EAS?

An interesting point was brought up on XMFan.com. Since WorldSpace is not broadcasting in the US, why do they participate in the EAS? TravKoolBreeze 20:13, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Outdated information

"Digital television, digital cable, XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Grendade, Worldspace, IBOC, DAB and digital radio broadcasters will be required to participate in EAS beginning December 31, 2006."

Anyone see the problem here? (Hint: look at the end of my signature.) Anyone have any information on if they are participating or not, so we can sort them accordingly? --_{The preceding signed comment was added by StonedChipmunk and you can contact them here.} 19:04, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Re. Outdated information

According to EAS rules and the FCC EAS web page, SDARS (Sirius, XM) (among others) began participating in EAS last year. The article requires revision to reflect this. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=75127c72007aa6a3f1ce8fda8cb814e2&rgn=div5&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.10&idno=47#47:1.0.1.1.10.1.237.1 . http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/ . Newsandrumor 19:02, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

King of the Hill

in a episode of King of the Hill, Hank, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer were standing in the alley like always, expect this time it was raining then the radio they had over there with them was on and the Emergency Alert System went off on the station they were listening to to tell them that the Heimleck (i hope i spelled that right) county area was under a flash flood warning. so can you please add a mention of this EAS refrence on the Emergency Alert System page.

Did they actually use the tone, or otherwise indicate that it was the EAS? Because if they didn't, then it doesn't belong here. 68.149.121.27 (talk) 23:32, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

June 26, 2007 False Alarm

Hey all, just wondering if the EAS false alarm that occurred this morning in Chicago was only here. None of the news outlets are reporting it, but the system went off twice at around 7:45am CDT, causing almost every FM and AM station to switch to simulcasting WGN-AM (our designated emergency station). Scared the hell out of me... was this a local Chicago incident? Gregly 14:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Rockford, Illinois was affected as well. 209.174.64.130 15:03, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

All radio stations in St. Louis, MO experienced the same issue. It was not local to northern IL. BradC 17:46, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

From http://www.rwonline.com/pages/s.0100/t.6891.html

Several hundred stations in Illinois were affected by an EAS mistake this morning, sources told Radio World. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency was testing new EAS equipment; what was supposed to be a closed-circuit test of the 10-minute presidential alert message from FEMA actually was broadcast to some 500 stations.

Starting at 7:30 this morning up to about 8 a.m., depending on when each station in the chain got the message, their programming was taken over for 10 minutes. All listeners in the Chicago area, for example, heard the alert tones and then WGN’s regular programming (with no explanation), according to sources. In other parts of the state, listeners would have heard dead air after the alert tones.

A monthly test would have lasted for two minutes, as opposed to the 10-minute presidential alert.

Chicago, Rockford, Quincy, and Springfield were among the affected areas.

Radio World will post further updates in tomorrow’s Leslie Report.

Messages to FEMA were not immediately returned.

209.174.64.130 20:14, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

The alert went out from the Illinois state EOC in Springfield. The EOC acts as an alternate national EAS source for Illinois as not all radio stations in Illinois can receive the state PEP station - WLS Radio. Many stations, including the P1 for Chicago and most of northern Illinois (WGN-AM) also monitor the state's EAS delivery backbone. Stations in some border markets around Illinois (like KMOV in St. Louis) also monitor the Illinois system as they also have coverage in those states.

FEMA is installing a new satellite delivery backbone for the national level alerts. This is to give all PEP stations an alternative means of receiving an EAN in addition to the traditional landline system. This new "background" channel was being tested in Cleveland and Richmond, VA. The national test was intended to go to only the identified systems in Cleveland and Richmond. These systems were not connected to any local EAS transmitter. The day before the test, a government contractor installed the new satellite receiver in the EOC in Springfield. Contrary to instructions, he wired the receiver into the states's EAS transmitter and left the receiver turned on. The state's EAS Endec was also left in an "auto forward" configuration. When the test EAN went out, both receivers in Cleveland and Richmond picked up the codes. Likewise, so did the receiver in Springfield, only that the Springfield receiver was NOT supposed to be connected. No one knew it was connected and since the ENDEC was in "auto forward" it activated their state network as designed. Since the message was intended to be entirely on a closed circuit, no audio message was sent to signify the alert was a test. No one was supposed to hear the test.

One thing that compounded the problem was once stations began realizing the alert was a mistake and only a test, several began pulling their EAS systems offline thus not allowing any termination codes to be passed to stations downstream of the P1, thus leaving their transmitters locked up or rebroadcasting the P1 audio until they themselves disconnected their EAS systems. Not knowing it was a test or if the President would be delivering a message at any second, stations were very hesitant to "pull the plug" right away. Several publised reports state that the CONTRACTOR sent the wrong codes. Contractors do NOT operate the national EAS system. The EAN had to be used to test the new delivery path, because the EAN is a unique code. There is no test code to simulate an EAN. The only way to truly verify how the new delivery path would work in getting the code out was to send an actual EAN to identified locations in a closed loop to observe if the receivers and ENDECS at the test sites would receive, process and react as programmed. This is what was happening. Many PEP stations and other primary locations had begun receiving their new receivers with SPECIFIC instructions to NOT connect them as national level "background" testing was being performed. They were advised they would be informed when testing was complete and when to put their new receivers on-line. Needless to say, the contractor in Illinois didn't follow directions. --Vidphoto 07:19, 30 June 2007 (UTC)[1]

All-digital Cable TV tuners

The article mentions that for cable systems, all channels are directed to an analog channel. With more and more systems turning into digital only, especially for consumer tuners (Motorola DCT-700 or DCT-34xx series for example), there is no analog tuner. I assume the rules have changed, or maybe the article needs to be clarified if it means something else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andyross (talk • contribs) 17:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

In Sacramento, its redirected to a digital EAS Channel which is a analog to digital conversion of the original alert.

The delay between an Analog EAS warning and Digital Cable EAS Warning is 3 seconds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JasonHockeyGuy (talk • contribs) 05:53, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Acronyms/Links

I've noticed that several of the acronyms mentioned early on in the article point to disambiguation pages. I did fix two - changed LM to point to the article on Land-mobile Radio, and changed the DMX Music page to redirect to DMX (music) instead of DMX. However, I was unable to determine which articles to use for ICC, STD and EIA. Someone who is more familiar with radio and broadcasting should fix these links - either update them to point to the appropriate article or remove the links if no appropriate article exists on Wikipedia.

Broken link

I have a problem, the SAME sound link and the sound link for the EAS attention signal seem broken. I keep getting a messages that the files are corrupted. Is there another way I could get the audio files that would actually work? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.236.154.131 (talk) 01:26, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Online EAS feed

Is there any online EAS feed for national emergencies? What if all you have is an Internet connection? -Rolypolyman (talk) 05:51, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

There is an email service that does localized weather alerts and most national emergencies. I've been receiving emails even regarding the recent tomato scares from it. I think it's called EmergencyEmail.org but I could be wrong. --{ StonedChipmunk _talk }-- 19:33, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

removed youtube links

i did removed youtube links.there are in soical networking website.the comments contain profanity.it is unencyclopedic.dont need 3 examples of eas tests.71.168.195.86 (talk) 19:57, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Just by merit of YouTube being a social networking site is not a valid reason to remove links. --ÆAUSSIEevilÆ 16:18, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Has it ever been used?

How often has it been used? Why was it not used during 9-11?Chrisrus (talk) 04:17, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Of course it's been used, several times. And reason it wasn't used during 9/11 is in the article.68.149.121.27 (talk) 23:28, 23 February 2009 (UTC)