This test is a waste of time and is being used to justify a Homeland Security/FEMA office's existence. Not to mention that many cable systems, including mine, still use the antiquated analog 'force the channel to change to C-SPAN' crap instead of the newer digital overlay. It's no wonder why they're concerned about the STBs.
I'm glad they shortened it, because it was a joke to begin with. Any true national emergency will be all over the air long before the EAS gets activated, short of a full-blown nuclear strike. If they didn't activate it for 9/11, what is the point?
My understanding from reading some of the stuff out there was that the test was designed to test 2 things. 1. The EAS gear with a 3 minute event... and 2. They are utilizing the old legacy OTA Relay system to transmit the alert instead of the Sat/Internet based systems some states have migrated to, so they wanted to ensure the legacy gear was still working.
This test is a waste of time and is being used to justify a Homeland Security/FEMA office's existence. Not to mention that many cable systems, including mine, still use the antiquated analog 'force the channel to change to C-SPAN' crap instead of the newer digital overlay. It's no wonder why they're concerned about the STBs.
I'm glad they shortened it, because it was a joke to begin with. Any true national emergency will be all over the air long before the EAS gets activated, short of a full-blown nuclear strike. If they didn't activate it for 9/11, what is the point?
According the info I read from the FCC, The reason they didn't issue an alert during 9/11 was that by the Time the Gov'ment learned of the details in order to issue a properly alert, All the major media was already distributing the information so pretty much everyone was already aware of the emergency. Issuing an actual EAS alert would've been redundant since pretty much anyone listening to the radio or watching TV was already getting the latest information via those channels. ("A national emergency has been declared. please tune to your local news outlet for the latest information." But... I'm already watching it... and your alert just made me miss some info!)
I don't know how accurate the above really is, but it honestly makes sense.
Nov. 9 Test of Emergency Alert System is "Only a Test"
FCC shortened test from three minutes to 30 seconds on Nov. 3
11/4/2011 12:40 PM
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable
The FCC has sent a letter to broadcasters and cable operators asking them to make an extra effort to communicate to the deaf, hard of hearing, intellectually disabled or with limited English proficiency, that the Nov. 9 national test of the Emergency Alert System is, as the saying goes, "only a test."
One of the limitations of the 50-year-old system, says the FCC, is that in some cases, particularly over cable systems, there could be an onscreen emergency alert logo and accompanying audio that: "this is only a test," but nothing onscreen saying it is a test.
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association earlier this month asked FEMA and the FCC to delay the date of the test. In a letter to FEMA copied to the FCC, NCTA President Michael Powell pointed out that the FCC had moved the implementation date of FEMA's next-generation Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) from Sept. 30, to June. That standard would have allowed cable operators to add text to the current government-approved on-screen text for the test that many operators can't modify and which says "This is an Emergency Action Notification," but not that it is a test.
Powell said that while some operators were putting in software patches that would allow them to add text, not all would be able to do so.
The FCC did not move the test, but Thursday (Nov. 3) it announced it had shortened the test from 3 minutes to only 30 seconds. That makes it is more in line with the familiar local tests -- that annoying three-note tone -- that have become a familiar part of the broadcast landscape.
The FCC and FEMA have already reached out to target populations, as have cable operators and broadcasters "conscientiously," the FCC points out.
But just in case, and to ensure that everybody knows it is only a test, the FCC asked that its partners in the test press home the points that it is only a test, that it will sound very much like the local tests they are used to, that it will be in all states and territories, that the screen may not say it is a test on every channel, and that regular programming will resume when the test is over.
An FCC official was checking at press time on why a notification that it was a test was not made part of the government-approved on-screen graphic that was being passed through.
According the info I read from the FCC, The reason they didn't issue an alert during 9/11 was that by the Time the Gov'ment learned of the details in order to issue a properly alert, All the major media was already distributing the information so pretty much everyone was already aware of the emergency. Issuing an actual EAS alert would've been redundant since pretty much anyone listening to the radio or watching TV was already getting the latest information via those channels. ("A national emergency has been declared. please tune to your local news outlet for the latest information." But... I'm already watching it... and your alert just made me miss some info!)
Exactly my point, and exactly why in this day and age it is a waste. They are not going to be able to react quick enough to anything to give people warning before someone finds out (or leaks it) and it's plastered all over the news. Or in the case of a nuke strike, it doesn't matter anyway because there's no time to take action. I am talking about a true nationwide activation here.
my dct2000 does shit it's self after 2 minutes, this much I do know. we had a tornado rip though just south of me, eas went off and ran for a little over 5 minutes straight, my dct70 was still showing it but was not locked up (as in having to hard reboot) but that blasted "refurbished" as the sticker says dct2000 had to be hard reset twice and I still got that blasted box, i should go swap it I think.
wow. I'm sorry for the inconvenience dude. If I was you I'd definitely go ahead with that swap out for a different model. »www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pre ··· 226.html
I've heard plenty of ads on local radio with the fcc chairman telling people that a nationwide test of eas was occurring on november 9th and that it will ONLY be a test not an actual alert.
i think the issue is more in regards to television because people with disabilities such as the deaf or people with equipment that cannot transmit the audio portion of the alert such as TiVo and Moxi (when banner text alert is used) (the audio portion saying "this is only a test" ) may panic since visually it will look like a real alert due to the nature of the test using live code i.e. the actual code used during a real emergency. Here's something I dug up from Comcast »www.comcast.com/MediaLib ··· ints.pdf
Actually it was because of other issues from radicals who think there's some conspiracy. »www.theglobalconspiracy. ··· ill.html and unofficially because certain agency officials believed people wouldn't be intelligent enough to know it was a test. Shortening the EAS test was ordered by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. I read it in one of the internal newsletters. I'm still ticked off about the shortening of the test, when one of the reasons why it was 3 minutes long in the first place was to test the hardware to see if it would continue working past the 2 minute mark that weekly and monthly tests are limited to, since national action notification messages have no time limits. I guess we’ll never know now.
I don't know if this is the way the EAS test was supposed to work but on my system at 2:04PM EST, the display on my cable box went to EAS. The video went to a Tylenol commercial and there was no audio. It lasted about ten seconds and then returned to regular programming.
Exactly the same thing happened here in Jupiter, FL (maybe we are on the same system). approx 2:05pm - was watching a recorded show on the DVR, channel/time display changed to "EAS", Tylenol commercial appeared for a few seconds, then (instead of returning to the recorded DVR show) the box tuned to the last channel on which I was watching live TV earlier in the day.
none of the boxes here went to EAS at all, All I received was the local broadcasts and the other box sitting beside it (yeah I dragged a tv downstairs) stayed on discovery and never changed and never went to EAS. This is the Indianapolis MSO that I refer to not changing
"Many of the reported failures affected cable and satellite television subscribers, and some were quite head-scratching: Some DirecTV subscribers said their TV sets played the Lady Gaga song “Paparazzi” when the test was underway. Some Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York said the test never appeared on screen. Some Comcast subscribers in northern Virginia said their TV sets were switched over to QVC before the alert was shown.
In some cases the test messages were delayed, perhaps because the messages are designed to trickle down from one place to many. A viewer in Minneapolis said he saw the message about three minutes late. A viewer in Chattanooga, Tenn., said she saw it about 10 minutes late."
Sorry, this fails logic 101. When a tornado is coming, both systems fire off, even if their is a person on air showing exactly where it is and where it is going. The difference is between a power grab and a non-power grab. Bush has set up a lot of stuff and Obama has pushed the envelope further. If they wanted to test it, then why not do the first test at 2AM and not 2PM?
Sorry, this fails logic 101. When a tornado is coming, both systems fire off, even if their is a person on air showing exactly where it is and where it is going. The difference is between a power grab and a non-power grab. Bush has set up a lot of stuff and Obama has pushed the envelope further. If they wanted to test it, then why not do the first test at 2AM and not 2PM?
The main reason why it wasn't conducted at 2am is because most radio and some tv stations are fully automated during that time with no people being around at all. A station would have to spend money to have a person for this test, and that sure as hell won't happen with the cheapskate media conglomerates.
"Many of the reported failures affected cable and satellite television subscribers, and some were quite head-scratching: Some DirecTV subscribers said their TV sets played the Lady Gaga song “Paparazzi” when the test was underway. Some Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York said the test never appeared on screen. Some Comcast subscribers in northern Virginia said their TV sets were switched over to QVC before the alert was shown.
In some cases the test messages were delayed, perhaps because the messages are designed to trickle down from one place to many. A viewer in Minneapolis said he saw the message about three minutes late. A viewer in Chattanooga, Tenn., said she saw it about 10 minutes late."
my area only had the alert tone sound with static for 30 seconds and then the test ended tone. So there was no "this is a test" alert in my area but just static. This is in North Texas and this was on an FM station.
we got an image on the screen and the tones and then static like a message was supposed to be played atleast the local broadcasters handled it right and even apologized for the issue about the audio
