US Cable Support > Comcast Cable TV > Nationwide EAS Test 11/9 2:00 PM EST

reply to owlyn

Re: Nationwide EAS Test 11/9 2:00 PM EST

reply to Mike Wolf
Gratefully accepted mike

reply to mikedz4
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/MediaLibrary/1/2···ints.pdf

reply to heat84

testing probably for the national test tomorrow.

Mike I am hearing from my source they cut down the testing to 30 seconds because of the broadcasts bitching rofl!

Actually it was because of other issues from radicals who think there's some conspiracy. »www.theglobalconspiracy.org/2011···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.

reply to owlyn
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

While I was not near any TV or radios at 2PM ET, I see that there are some early media reports saying there were many problems with the test:

Gizmondo: So That Emergency Alert System Test Was Pretty Much a Failure
»gizmodo.com/5857970/so-that-emer···-failure

NYT: It Was Only a Test, but What a Test
»mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2···-a-test/

"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."

As predicted, epic fail and waster of time and money.

Is anyone surprised? Probably not, so let's spend even more time and money to get it to work, then never use it!

I'd be LOL'ing if it wasn't so sad.

reply to miscDude
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?

reply to telcodad

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

this is what my test was like

reply to owlyn
when I got home from work today my box was stuck on QVC until I did a power cycle. Guessing it was likely tuned to QVC by the EAS test.

odd thing is that I have seen this box work with EAS just fine, once for a storm and several times for Amber Alert.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports

QVC is Comcast's emergency alert messaging channel for those who weren't aware.

reply to telcodad