On Tue, 8 Nov 2011, Bill Horne wrote:

On Sat, 2011-11-05 at 09:48 -0400, ARRL Members Only Web site wrote:
FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will
conduct the first nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) Test on
Wednesday, November 9, at 1:00 p.m. Central. Participating analog and
digital radio, television, cable, satellite, and wireline providers
will broadcast a single, live-code alert, called the Emergency Action
Notification, which will be relayed to the public and stations in their
coverage area. The purpose of the test is to assess the reliability and
effectiveness of the EAS as a public alert mechanism.

For more information about the EAS test, see:
http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm
http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/emer...ationwide-test

The FCC and FEMA are recommending stations run Public Service
Announcements reminding the public that the EAS announcement on
Wednesday, November 9, at 1:00 PM Central is only a test.


Do hams have any repeaters hooked up to this system, or is it limited to
broadcast stations only?

Bill, W1AC




Bill,

I suppose the only EAS broadcast tie-in most repeaters would have would be
via NOAA Weather Radio, which (interestingly) is not able to participate
in this test due to technical limitations.

Per http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm:

Will NOAA Weather Radio carry the Test?

NOAA Weather Radio will not transmit the EAS Test. There is currently
no mechanism to transport this type of message to NWR transmitters.
Additionally, the Test will use the EAN code where the audio message
exceeds the two minute audio time limit allowed by Specific Area
Messaging Encoding (SAME) and the EAS.

Sounds like a bit of a deficiency in the system to me.

Steve, KG4PEQ

--
Amateur Radio Coordinator
NWS Wakefield SKYWARN
http://www.wx4akq.org
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/akq