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Mad_T_I
join:2012-11-20
Torrance, CA

Mad_T_I

Member

Verizon Fios: Emergency Alert System Test


I live in Los Angeles County. I am subject to at least 5 counties each month running their own uncoordinated and unannounced test of the “Emergency Alert System.”

The “Emergency Alert System Test” (EAS) interrupts all channels,
Stopping recorded programs and Interrupts what I am currently watching.

As of this November 20, 2012: Emergency Alert System Test (EAS) interruptions:
November: 21 interrupts of all channels
October: 25 interrupts of all channels

Is our country at “War” and these test must be done or . . .
. . . what ? ? ? ? ?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL

Member

I live in the same VHO 3 area that the OP does, and because the VHO is for all of Southern California we do get many tests at various times of the day, and they are all initiated by the originating Governmental agency, not Verizon.

Your premise that "our county (is) at "War' and these tests must be done" is no applicable. The "or what" is that these tests are done to ensure that the EAS works end to end from the originating Governmental agency to the consumer.

I'm curious how you actually were able to count the number of interruptions.
billhere
join:2011-10-21
Santa Monica, CA

billhere to Mad_T_I

Member

to Mad_T_I
Could this testing be why the last three episodes of Castle (Monday nights 10 PM LA time) that I recorded were split into two separate recordings, all with a minute or so of the program missing in between?

I would think one consolidated test per month at, say, 3 am, would be sufficient. I understand the current rules call for different times.
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL

Member

said by billhere:

Could this testing be why the last three episodes of Castle (Monday nights 10 PM LA time) that I recorded were split into two separate recordings, all with a minute or so of the program missing in between?

I would think one consolidated test per month at, say, 3 am, would be sufficient. I understand the current rules call for different times.

The segmented recording is most likely caused by an EAS test.

Since there are multiple agencies initiating tests through their own systems and then into FiOS, a consolidated test would not test the entire end-to-end EAS. Each agency has to test it's ability to insert an EAS warning.

celticpride
@verizon.net

celticpride to Mad_T_I

Anon

to Mad_T_I
If these test need to be done by law then they should be be done at 3 a.m.,Not during prime time viewing hours, i'm tired of having my shows like castle,revolution, and last resort ,interrupted by these test!,when i was with directv before i never had this problem. this is the kind of thing that makes me wanna go back to directv!

jjoshua
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ

jjoshua to Mad_T_I

Premium Member

to Mad_T_I
Every test should be accompanied by the name of the agency that initiated the test and a contact name, email, and phone number.
Baff
join:2007-12-05
Murrieta, CA

Baff to celticpride

Member

to celticpride
I am a night owl. I quite often see these tests around 1am. Last year I was recording a show around that time and I regularly missed a minute of the show.

It is extremely annoying as I watch most of my recordings between 11pm and 3am. Though I prefer to have my viewing interrupted than to have my recordings interrupted. Breaking into the last 10 minutes of a primetime show is incredibly rude. They also seem to work very hard to avoid interrupting the commercials... God forbid we should miss some commercial we have seen 500 times.
billhere
join:2011-10-21
Santa Monica, CA

billhere to PJL

Member

to PJL
I have no objection to the tests but 25 of them in one month seems overkill. Granted I live in an area with few bad weather alerts but I've never seen a real warning in 14 months with FiOS and over four years with DirecTV.
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL

Member

said by billhere:

I have no objection to the tests but 25 of them in one month seems overkill. Granted I live in an area with few bad weather alerts but I've never seen a real warning in 14 months with FiOS and over four years with DirecTV.

There are likely over 25 entities that have the ability to insert EAS messages given the extensive FiOS Southern California footprint. Although we in Southern California don't usually have the weather issues that other parts of the country have, we do have other events that would warrant an EAS message, like how to respond after an earthquake.
Baff
join:2007-12-05
Murrieta, CA

Baff

Member

In the 16 years EAS has been in effect, I have only seen 1 actual warning message for me in So.Cal. It was about a local fire a couple years back. The recording was so awful that they shouldn't even have bothered. It sounded like they recorded it over a mobile phone with really bad reception. We couldn't understand half of what they said.

All these years of annoying tests, and the first actual warning was still a complete failure.
billhere
join:2011-10-21
Santa Monica, CA

billhere to PJL

Member

to PJL
said by PJL:

Although we in Southern California don't usually have the weather issues that other parts of the country have, we do have other events that would warrant an EAS message, like how to respond after an earthquake.

Last time we had a big earthquake the electricity was out for six hours so an EAS TV warning wouldn't have done any good anyway. My point is that there are too many of these tests.
PJL
join:2008-07-24
Long Beach, CA

PJL

Member

said by billhere:

said by PJL:

Although we in Southern California don't usually have the weather issues that other parts of the country have, we do have other events that would warrant an EAS message, like how to respond after an earthquake.

Last time we had a big earthquake the electricity was out for six hours so an EAS TV warning wouldn't have done any good anyway. My point is that there are too many of these tests.

The electricity may have been out for you, but not for others.