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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARRL Midwest Division
Director: Cliff Ahrens, K0CA

--------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

On 11/8/2011 10:38 PM, Bill Horne wrote:
Do hams have any repeaters hooked up to this system, or is it limited to
broadcast stations only?

Guess I'll have to dig out my old Conelrad receiver and
add a packet decoder to it and an LCD display ;-)

Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi

--
"Everything from Crackers to Coffins"

On Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:36:42 -0500, D. Stussy wrote:

"Bill Horne" wrote in message
news:1320808866.4285.1.camel@Thinkpad... 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?
==========
Some do, but usually through weather radios which are not participating
in the test even though they normally carry EAS messages.

Although 47 CFR 97.111(a)(3) could govern legal retransmission of EAS
messages [from broadcast stations], 97.113(a)(5)(c) strongly implies
that a weather radio link is the preferred way to receive them.


One repeater controller manufacturer has a weather radio device:

http://www.catauto.com/wx200.html

Another manufacturer of interface-able weather radios:

http://www.thuneagle.com/

Here are examples of repeaters that have weather radios tied in:

K0NR http://www.k0nr.com/rwitte/repeater.html K4JDR
http://www.carolina440.net/
K6BDE http://k6bde.snarked.org/
WX5OKC http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=3634

See also: http://www.repeater-builder.com/tech...er-radios.html
"Weather Receiver Rebroadcasts and the Legal Questions" Riley
Hollingsworth from the FCC (in 1999) comments, especially:

"You can only use the official NOAA alerts, not alerts from other
sources (i.e. the local TV or broadcast radio station)."

Many NWR stations have no audio links. They are sent text and synthesize
the announcements.

What is a National level emergency? Giant asteroid? Alien invasion?
Martial law?

I was watching Aljazeera on the web and no test; I did hear KFI screw it
up on the radio.