[BC] Another Example of Why EAS Is a Farce

[Larry Fuss]

EAS "CIVIL EMERGENCY MESSAGE" BROADCAST BY ACCIDENT
TO SANTA BARBARA AND VENTURA COUNTIES ON JUNE 27, 2006

  What should have been an innocent closed circuit test
of new equipment being installed at the LP-1 EAS station in
Santa Barbara, CA was instead broadcast as a Civil Emergency
Message (CEM) with no details provided to an alarmed public,
and no End of Message (EOM) cue.  The CEM was carried by almost
all participating radio, television and cable TV companies in 
Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and the public flooded 911
lines with inquiries.

  Since there was no audio (other than the old EBS tones),
presumably the public's concern was triggered by the cryptic
"Civil Emergency" TV scrolls.  The erroneous CEM was broadcast
from the LP-1 at 2:29 PM PDST on Tuesday, June 27, 2006.

  Laura Hernandez, Manager, Sheriff's Office of Emergency
Services for Ventura County, wasted no time in getting to the
bottom of the matter, and at 2:56 PM PDST issued the following
e-mail to key community officials - and that action brought the
911 calls to an almost immediate halt:

  "A civil emergency management message was inadvertently
sent out this afternoon while engineers were working at a Santa
Barbara radio station.  Phones at local dispatch centers have
been flooded with phone calls.  Please advise your public that
this was an accidental test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS)
and there is no civil emergency in progress."

  For the inside story on what caused the faulty CEM message
to be broadcast, visit the URLs below.  The first web address
takes you to various e-mails prepared by J D Strahler, Santa
Barbara LECC Chair, acting in the heat of the battle on the day
of the event.  The second web address links to a reflective
letter by J D two days after the event occurred.

  According to subsequent info from J D, California should never
use CEM codes for testing, and the new CapCom EDIS decoder box
being tested (the device that caused the problem) should not have
been interfaced to the LP-1's live EAS equipment at the time of
testing (the CapCom installer goofed).

  This unintended test of the EAS system did identify some
weaknesses with EAS distribution in the Santa Barbara and Ventura
areas, and perhaps someone will prepare a step-by-step "lessons
learned" report.  We can all profit from that kind of information.
Similar bugs undoubtedly exist in other EAS systems, and this was
a unique opportunity to flush them out.

  http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Accidental_EAS.htm
  http://earthsignals.com/add_CGC/Letters/EAS_Incident_JD.htm


 The CGC Communicator is published for broadcast engineering
  professionals in so. California by Communications GeneralR
  Corporation (CGC), consulting radio engineers, Fallbrook, CA.
  Typographical errors originating in FCC material are
  faithfully reproduced.