A National Dialogue on the Emergency Alert System Browse Recent ideas

I would like to suggest that in addition to carrying national EAS on the NPR Squawk (News Advisory) channel that NPR also carry EAS on "Squawk Net", the Breaking News Channel. NPR stations could then monitor the Breaking News Channel on their Endecs and have a direct line to national. This would improve audio quality across the country ... at least on NPR stations and any stations that monitor them. The NPR News Advisory... more »

The time in the National Test was 2:03:00 EST in the transmitted header all over the country. The DASDEC boxes and likely other newer boxes appeared to have taken that time as the "I am waiting until this is effective". A discussion needs to occur about the reality of that behavior during an EAN.

I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH EMERGENCY SERVICES IN SOME WAY MOST OF MY ADULT LIFE.I'M A AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR AND EMERGENCY COORDINATOR, MEMBER OF AIR FORCE MARS. FIRST THE PAST EBS ALERTS IN THE MID FIFTIES. I REMEMBER ON ONE TEST BROADCAST RADIO AND TV STATIONS WERE SHUT DOWN BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT AND THE PUBLIC NOTIFIED TO MONITOR THE TWO CIVIL DEFENSE CHANNELS ON AM RADIO, YOU REMEMBER THE TWO... more »

For the national test was the AT&T conference bridge at Blue Ridge used to send the EAN message to the PEP stations?

The mobile phone is the perfect Emergency Response & Notification system. Face it, one thing you always have within a few feet of you is your phone.In case of a tornado, act of terrorism, or any other situation that requires the people you are responsible for to be alerted.

I "witnessed" the test this afternoon. There was no indication that it was a test except to a statement 60 seconds prior to the test that said it was coming at 2:00 PM. When it took place all that happened was a serious interruption of TV reception which lasted approximately 3.5 minutes. I would say that it was a complete failure in our area. It needs a lot more work!

Many online services where users tend to stay attached, say for instance multiplayer games, might want to plug into such a system. The interface could be as simple as an RSS feed.

Our station and a few others in our area have noted that the Sage Endec might have a problem. We have two units. One played the entire message through correctly. The other played back the first two seconds then the rest was silence. Another station in the area noted the same thing, one of their three units doing that. Anybody else?

In Indianapolis, we received the tones just fine but the audio message was coming over both of the stations we monitor as nothing but noise.

Anyone else get this?

Is there anywhere you can actually see the national roll out of this program. I am in a Telecommuications class and and we are just wondering how this roll out works as far and from the top down and maybe any pictures of it.... any ideas???

Good ideas mixed with to much government control of broadcasting. None of this should be mandatory for anyone. Everyone should have a opt out switch so control of their station is never lost. This has a great deal of negative hidden consiquences. The public should be informed of how much power is given to the government in this case.

It seems to me that since most people have cell phones, sending a text message to Cell Phones may be the most comprehensive way to contact people.

Cell phone contracts could include an option for people to opt-in to a text message emergency message system so that parents could opt-out, if they so desired, for their children's cell phones.

What about a broadcast text message to all cell phones (free to subscriber) registered to a United States address?

If NOAA was part of this process, why is NOAA not participating in the drill? Emergency managers in Florida, and across the Country, have been promoting NOAA weather radios for years. Now, during one of the most critical tests in national EAS history - we aren't even going to use this technology. It's very confusing to us and the citizens. Now we are having to give an alternate message to groups. "Ignore weather... more »

I don’t know if the National Alert Service is the correct forum, but I would like to address a recent issue that came up with Alert Systems in general. As you know, Western Massachusetts experienced an extreme snow event last week which put power out to almost all of Western Mass. and Connecticut. All of the “what to do in an emergency” manuals said keep a battery operated radio and wait for announcements. Well, with... more »