EAS Updates

 NATIONAL EAS TEST – WEDNESDAY, SEPT 27, 2017, 1:20PM CT

John Veatch with FEMA has announced a National EAS Test for Wednesday, Sept 27, 2017, at 1:20pm CT.  A secondary date of October 4, 2017 was also given.  The “NPT” test will not replace any scheduled required monthly (RMT) or weekly tests (RWT).  The test message will use the National Periodic Test (NPT) event code with an audio message that sounds similar to a typical Required
Monthly Test text.  Plan on test to take approximately 53secs.

The proposed test will be originated in the same manner as the National EAS Test which was successfully conducted on September 28, 2016.  FEMA will use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which allows stations to recieve test audio from the internet-based Common Alerting Protocol.

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that every station must create a username within the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES) to access the 2017 EAS Test Reporting System.   This system is currently unavailable, and notification will be posted when it is up.  The move is designed to integrate the Electronic Test Reporting System, or ETRS—the online portal where broadcasters have submitted data on whether they received the national EAS activation and whether they were able to then pass it down the line—into the FCC’s other databases.  Based on recommendations after last September’s national test, the FCC says several improvements have been made to ETRS.