The Broadcasters' Desktop Resource

... edited by Barry Mishkind - the Eclectic Engineer

EAS News Archive: 2023

The idea is to bring some clarity to the issues and answer your questions.
For more detail on EAS and some Q&A, please check the EAS Issues.

List of available EAS News Archives:

Latest EAS News   |   2022   |   2021   |   2020   |   2019

11/28/23 – The FCC today issued an order not requiring Sage users to have the latest EAS update installed by the December 12th deadline – extending the compliance deadline by 90 days, until March 11, 2024 – but only for those EAS Participants that are customers of Sage. (Other users must comply by December 12th. )
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-23-1111A1.pdf
11/6/23 – Sage has notified the FCC – and us – that they will not meet the deadline for the December 12th update for their EAS boxes.
If this ends up impacting your EAS units, do remember you can operate for 60 days “out of compliance” for EAS … up to February 12, 2024 … by noting it in your Station Logs. Even then, you could continue, if you notify the FCC.
One hopes the software will be ready sooner.
11/1/23 – An EAS alert advising a “boil water” alert was issued by KGLI in Souix City, IA. Although many stations relayed the alert, the station acknowldeged on their facebook page that it was an error – apparently generated in the city of Ackley, likely a test that went wrong.
10/19/23 – An EAS test “Shake Alert” to test the earthquake alert system was scheduled for 10:19 AM. Somehow it was coded for 1019 UTC, or 3:19 AM in the morning. Cell phones went off. People were more than a bit confused.
7/28/23 – Sage is now saying they plan to release their upgrade at the end of August or early September.
7/15/23 – We are still awaiting information on the final updates to bring EAS units to meet the FCC’s requirements for December. Sage and Gorman-Redlich promised it in July, and while the month isn’t yet over, we have not had notice, nor seen it on the company sites. Digital Alert Systems (DASDEC) have issued the V 5.1, but also plan a 5.2 before December. We will post updates here when we get them.
7/11/23 – The FEMA announced today a ten-year agreement with SiriusXM to expand their relationship, granting the FEMA secure bandwidth access on SiriusXM’s proprietary satellite radio system to send alerts to the 77 NPWS stations and other monitoring stations.
The Public Notice is here.
7/5/23 – The FCC had required all SECC’s to file acceptable state plans by one year ago today. As of this time, 15 states have complied and a few others are being scrutinized but the majority are still “in progress.” The list of accepted plans is here. The main issue is that the FCC decided that it would be required for at least two separate independent paths to the LP-1s and as well as the rest of the stations in each state. The FCC has further required an annual update of the plans. The latest adjustment is that the FCC will permit partial updates at any time. Interestingly, the FCC is still working on its last Quadrennial Review .. and the one before (2018 and 2022).
6/19/23 – The FEMA did NOT issue the usual RWT this week for any of the US time zones. No explanation is yet available. Possibly due to an oversight on an holiday?
6/6/23 – The FCC has now approved the State EAS Plans submitted by the SECCs in those states. The most recent plans accepted are from NY, GA, DC,WA, MA, and OH. The list of accepted plans is here.
6/6/2023 – The FCC issued a Public Notice making some changes to the way SECC State Plans are submitted and when updates should be made. Also, the changes seek to “simplify” monitoring assignments by reducing “intermediate” assignments as much as possible.

5/31/23 – The FCC, in a last minute action, granted a waiver to the new rule that TV stations must audibly repeat any emergency text messages scrolling ont he screen. The wavier runs until 11/26/24.

5/22/23 – Florida’s RMT, scheduled for today, did not happen. Reason not yet known, but the FAB rescheduled it for the 23rd at 1:50 PM

5/17/23 – Digital Alert Systems has released version 5.1 software (click this link here) for the DASDEC. The company said this version was intended for all current units, including the DASDEC-II and One-Net models (shipped since 2016 with a 32/64-bit processor).

A version 5.2 is expectd this year, prior to the December deadline for upgrades – this will be at no cost to users with V5.x.

3/20/23 – All time zones: the IPAWS CAP RWT failed again, for the fourth week in a row.

According to information, for some reason, the test was *not* sent this morning.

If you are keeping score:

* Feb 20: RWTs went out normally
* Feb 27: RWTs went out with invalid signature
* Mar 6: RWTs went out with invalid signature
* March 13: RWTs went out with invalid signature
* March 20: RWTs were not sent

At this moment, it is unclear what will happen next week. But we will let you know when we do.

3/13/23 – All time zones should find the IPAWS CAP RWT failed again, for the third week in a row.

According to information, the new digital certificate is now due to be installed mid-week. The previous one expired in late February.

If you normally log the CAP RWT, mark this down as a failed test.  If you have a DASDEC and it looks like a normal test, you need to fix a selection at: Setup > Net Alerts >CAP Deconde, and uncheck “Accept unverifiable signed alerts” under “View Advanced Options.”

3/3/23 – We are informed that the FEMA still has only an old certificate, which means the RWT on Monday, March 6th will fail. 

The FEMA letter states:

EAS Participants,

The last scheduled RWTs (Monday, February 27) went out with an invalid signature. This means your EAS device should have received it but should have rejected it as invalid. Unfortunately, we will not have the signature issue resolved in time for the next scheduled RWTs (Monday, March 6) so you should expect similar behavior. This issue will be noted in the monthly report for March.

This issue does not affect EAS messages sent by state/local agencies, it only affects the IPAWS automated RWTs.

v/r
Mark A. Lucero, CISSP
Chief, IPAWS Engineering
FEMA National Continuity Programs

2/27/23 – The FEMA used an expired certificate, hence all the RWTs from IPAWS CAP failed.

2/13/23 – The FCC has released the new 2023 EAS Handbook, which, according to Part 11.15 “… must be located at normal duty positions or EAS equipment location when an operator is required to be on duty, and be immediately accessible to staff responsible for authenticating or originating messages.”

At present the FCC is not planning a Public Notice  and, although there is at present no deadline for implementing this new Handbook in control points,  you can download a copy now at: https://www.fcc.gov/file/24607/download

Stations are reminded that, before posting the new Handbook, there are blank lines in the handbook that are to be filled in locally with the correct information and directions.

2/10/23 – Sage Alerting announced their upgrade to meet the FCC’s 12/12/23 deadline will be ready in June, at a price of $159. 

This will be Rev96 and will require stations to have a Rev95 at any patch level before Rev96 will work. Stations that have purchased a new model 3644 since December 12, 2021 can get a free upgrade. 

1/26/23 – the FCC hit Fox with a $504k fine for misusing EAS tones.

1/9/23 – For the second week in a row, the regular Monday test from the FEMA on IPAW CAP did not happen normally. Last week only some areas got the test. This week no one did; the word from the FEMA is the tests “were not properly sent.”

If you do log the FEMA tests, this is the explanation to enter in the log: “Failed Test – per FEMA notification.” 

List of available EAS News Archives:

Latest EAS News   |   2022   |   2021   |   2020   |   2019