Nationwide test of the wireless emergency alert & emergency alert systems on 9/20/18
- Thread starter ipfd320
- Start date
- Tags fema national test
I have three phones, all three use the at&t cell tower network. Two have at&t accounts and the third is served by TracFone. Only one on the at&t account is a smartphone. All have text messaging that does work fine.
Only my Samsung Galaxy S5 on the at&t account received the alert. I get full bars so not a signal problem. It must have been some other issue as others on our at&t wireless accounts also did not receive the test alert if they did not have full out smartphones.
I also saw the alert on every Dish Sat TV channel I could tune before it was turned off. I've never seen any EAS type alerts on channels received using Dish's satellites except one local station that I can get from Dish using both, the OTA connector on the Dish receiver or from the signal that comes down via the satellites. That station's EAS messages makes it at all times regardless of how you get its signal. it's a small station also that is the local OTA station affiliated with the ION network. Even though it is a small station, Dish still retransmits its signal. The other larger local network stations (ABC, CBS etc.) EAS messages are only seen when tuning those stations via OTA signals. Even the major network stations that Dish retransmits here seem to be missing EAS messages.
I did not get to try anything sent over Charter cable channels.
I found it interesting that only my true smartphone received the alert on the at&t network. The big difference between my smartphone and the two that did not receive the WEA or EAS test is that the smartphone is using 4G technology while the two other phones are 3G. I'm not certain but I guess there are different frequency bands for 4G and 3G. I don't think the two technologies can share the same frequency band. Anyone know this for certain?
I do suspect this to be the reason the alert was not received on the two non smartphone devices.
Only my Samsung Galaxy S5 on the at&t account received the alert. I get full bars so not a signal problem. It must have been some other issue as others on our at&t wireless accounts also did not receive the test alert if they did not have full out smartphones.
I also saw the alert on every Dish Sat TV channel I could tune before it was turned off. I've never seen any EAS type alerts on channels received using Dish's satellites except one local station that I can get from Dish using both, the OTA connector on the Dish receiver or from the signal that comes down via the satellites. That station's EAS messages makes it at all times regardless of how you get its signal. it's a small station also that is the local OTA station affiliated with the ION network. Even though it is a small station, Dish still retransmits its signal. The other larger local network stations (ABC, CBS etc.) EAS messages are only seen when tuning those stations via OTA signals. Even the major network stations that Dish retransmits here seem to be missing EAS messages.
I did not get to try anything sent over Charter cable channels.
I found it interesting that only my true smartphone received the alert on the at&t network. The big difference between my smartphone and the two that did not receive the WEA or EAS test is that the smartphone is using 4G technology while the two other phones are 3G. I'm not certain but I guess there are different frequency bands for 4G and 3G. I don't think the two technologies can share the same frequency band. Anyone know this for certain?
I do suspect this to be the reason the alert was not received on the two non smartphone devices.
This is a matter of the phone itself and not the network(4G vs 3G). From my understanding, the phone itself needs to support WEA.
https://www.fema.gov/media-library-...142/IsYourPhoneWEACapable_Final_Compliant.pdf
My current phone is WEA capable, but there's no setting within the phone that would suggest it. My ladies brand new phone does have the option to disable it within text messaging options.
https://www.fema.gov/media-library-...142/IsYourPhoneWEACapable_Final_Compliant.pdf
My current phone is WEA capable, but there's no setting within the phone that would suggest it. My ladies brand new phone does have the option to disable it within text messaging options.
These messages do not use text messaging network. This is sent to the phones via seperate network, and do not get acknowledged from the phone. It's just a blast message on the control channel of LTE and 3G. Only phones that have support for these alerts will get the message. They also use this to send weather and amber alerts. They can direct the messages to specific geographical areas.
Thanks for the WEA info guys! I thought I'd read everything available on this subject but I sure missed the pdf you linked to.
I'd never realized it until today but my older non smartphones have never received any amber alerts either, this explains why. I'm not complaining about the lack of amber alerts as they were usually a nuisance. They did not seem to target my geographical area and I'd get amber alerts for all parts of the country. That was rather annoying. I think they did start sending amber alerts to the target area only as I rarely receive them now.
The only time I see one for outside my area is when they think the abductor may travel to my area with the child in question.
I'd never realized it until today but my older non smartphones have never received any amber alerts either, this explains why. I'm not complaining about the lack of amber alerts as they were usually a nuisance. They did not seem to target my geographical area and I'd get amber alerts for all parts of the country. That was rather annoying. I think they did start sending amber alerts to the target area only as I rarely receive them now.
The only time I see one for outside my area is when they think the abductor may travel to my area with the child in question.
From: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-alert-test
This is purely a guess, but I would assume it'd be used during times like 9/11. The president was airborne for quite a while that day. He wasn't able to go live on TV the same way he would've been able to if he were at the white house(or similar land location). With this system, he(or staff) would be able to send out a mass alert. Using 9/11 as an example, it'd probably be something along the lines of "Flights nationwide are being grounded pending further notice. Please remain calm and await for the press conference at XX:xx"
In today's time, it'd be most likely used if there were a nuclear attack imminent, an asteroid that will cause mass devastation, other life or infrastructure space threats(think mass coronal ejection), or anything else that would apply to the entire nation. I honestly doubt it will get used except for tests(hopefully), but it's a damn good thing to have just in case.
This is purely a guess, but I would assume it'd be used during times like 9/11. The president was airborne for quite a while that day. He wasn't able to go live on TV the same way he would've been able to if he were at the white house(or similar land location). With this system, he(or staff) would be able to send out a mass alert. Using 9/11 as an example, it'd probably be something along the lines of "Flights nationwide are being grounded pending further notice. Please remain calm and await for the press conference at XX:xx"
In today's time, it'd be most likely used if there were a nuclear attack imminent, an asteroid that will cause mass devastation, other life or infrastructure space threats(think mass coronal ejection), or anything else that would apply to the entire nation. I honestly doubt it will get used except for tests(hopefully), but it's a damn good thing to have just in case.
Political partisianship, and the outright hatred expressed by voters of each political party towards the other.
Also, an absolute distrust in our goverment, and the idea that politicians do as they want, regardless of what laws may prohibit them from doing certain things, such as using presidential alerts to push direct messages to the general public.
At least, that's what I've seen across social media when this test has been presented.
John
Peoria, AZ
Also, an absolute distrust in our goverment, and the idea that politicians do as they want, regardless of what laws may prohibit them from doing certain things, such as using presidential alerts to push direct messages to the general public.
At least, that's what I've seen across social media when this test has been presented.
John
Peoria, AZ
Wife and I have Samsung Galaxy 8s. She gets Amber Alerts and I don't. I turned it off.. We were both home and nether phone got the alert. TV on Comcast cable got it. Both phones go Wifi when we are home. Might be why we didn't get it..
According to https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-211182/ Presidential alerts can't be disabled on the s8. That's not to say it's the same with other service providers tho
Initial Nationwide Alert Testing Results Released
December,2018
The FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released initial results of the 2018 nationwide tests of wireless emergency alerts (WEA) and the emergency alert system (EAS) conducted Oct. 3.
Initial test data indicate that the majority of EAS participants successfully received and retransmitted the national periodic test (NPT) code used for the test. Overall, performance appears to be consistent with what was observed in the 2017 nationwide EAS test.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-1294A1.pdf
Initial Nationwide Alert Testing Results Released
December,2018
The FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released initial results of the 2018 nationwide tests of wireless emergency alerts (WEA) and the emergency alert system (EAS) conducted Oct. 3.
Initial test data indicate that the majority of EAS participants successfully received and retransmitted the national periodic test (NPT) code used for the test. Overall, performance appears to be consistent with what was observed in the 2017 nationwide EAS test.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-1294A1.pdf
Initial Nationwide Alert Testing Results Released