First test of National Alert System

[NoAm]

It didn't hit all of our cable channels, nothing on the Weather Channel, flipped over to a network station and it was playing on there.

[shrapnel]

ZS was down for me, for a minute or two, right at 2:01. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT.

[NoAm]

ZS was down for me, for a minute or two, right at 2:01. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT.

Mr. NoAm & I were on the internetz and had no problem.

[duodecima]

I heard nothing- I'm at work, no radio or TV. (Now, anything that big my employer uses an email/text emergency alert system, as does my kid's school, so I think I'd've gotten a for-real emergency but still... It's not easy to get everybody's attention all at once anymore.

[NoAm]

Wasn't there a reference that cells phones would be receiving texts? We got nothing on our cells.

[Czechnology]

Well Mass Failure here LOL Nothing happened. Local radio was waiting but it was a no go LOL , Anyone surprised ???? look who is in charge .

Who would that be?

http://www.fcc.gov/leadership/julius-genachowski

OH YEAH THAT GUY, HAHAHA NO WONDER.

[Oneswunk]

Color me unimpressed.

Maybe next time skynet.

[Patriot Pirate]

Was on phone with friend in Ohio and he said nothing came on his radio or tv either

[Czechnology]

Was on phone with friend in Ohio and he said nothing came on his radio or tv either

That's exactly what they were hoping to find so they could fix it. That's why it's called a "test".

[phil_in_cs]

Was on phone with friend in Ohio and he said nothing came on his radio or tv either

That's exactly what they were hoping to find so they could fix it. That's why it's called a "test".

An experiment is always successful, even if it proves something doesn't work. Worked fine here.

[Necrodamus]

Was on phone with friend in Ohio and he said nothing came on his radio or tv either

That's exactly what they were hoping to find so they could fix it. That's why it's called a "test".

An experiment is always successful, even if it proves something doesn't work. Worked fine here.

I disagree, but I know what you mean.
I have seen experiments that failed in that the experiment that was conducted was incapable of rendering a succeess or failure and was therefore of no benefit. Happens a lot in the IT field!

[Czechnology]

I disagree, but I know what you mean.
I have seen experiments that failed in that the experiment that was conducted was incapable of rendering a succeess or failure and was therefore of no benefit. Happens a lot in the IT field!

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[whisk.e.rebellion]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

You do know how a button works, don't you? No, not like on clothes.

[basm]

All I do at work is listen to CDs or stream radio, and the radio I was streaming at 2pm didn't have any kind of anything, so I don't know if anything happened. I realized it at about 2:30 that I'd missed it. I guess if SHTF and I'm not watching TV (I watch TV practically never) or listening to the real radio (which is also never), I'm fucked! Or, really, I'm sure Twitter would have the news 15 minutes before EAS could get a signal going. That's where I'd look first anyway.

I did find this interesting, though. There were apparently an EAS signal carrying some garbled nonsense and/or music. This one I found has a guy saying "we are under alien attack". I'm thinking somebody's idea of a really bad joke. Can't imagine the number of panic modes who had 911 on speed dial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdrMe0zlQ0

(the hissing/messages start at about :50)

edit: ninjas were never here

[gravediggerfour]

Horns and Desktop alerts on post today at 1300hrs. Was it a Eastern time thing?

[Valarius]

Apparently there was no alert, nor a damn thing. How are we supposed to bow before our alien overlords if people aren't told about them?

I'm emailing the stations to complain.

[Rev]

I don't have a television and I don't listen to my car radio because it only gets one very awful local station.

[phil_in_cs]

Horns and Desktop alerts on post today at 1300hrs. Was it a Eastern time thing?

yep

[phil_in_cs]

Roughly two hours after the test occurred, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman released this statement to BusinessInsider.com:

“The weaknesses exposed by today’s test of the emergency alert system are unacceptable. Government and media carriers must work together to make sure the system does what it is intended to do, which is to transmit a nationwide message from the President in a crisis. I commend FEMA for carrying out this long-overdue, first-ever, nationwide test of the system. Without it, we would never have known the extent of the system’s vulnerabilities.”

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/09/ ... est-today/

I'm sure there's nothing wrong a few billion dollars won't fix.

[KodiakJack]

Cancelled here in Alaska because of the storm the size of the lower-48.

[Midian]

Here the I-heart Radio had it at 3 min late, it had a good tone. The radio was about a minute later and the tone was soft until about half way through, then it got to full volume. I did not see any TV

[Regulator]

Who paid for this test? And who's gonna pay to fix it? And just why would anyone need to tell everyone in the entire mainland, Alaska, Hawaii and other territories something all at the same time?

[Phoenix David]

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[Rev]

Who paid for this test? And who's gonna pay to fix it? And just why would anyone need to tell everyone in the entire mainland, Alaska, Hawaii and other territories something all at the same time?

Originally it was conceived for nuclear attack but bio terrorism and some rather uncommon natural disasters would also fit the bill.