[BC] Another Example of Why EAS Is a Farce

[Mike McCarthy]

This article headline really does the system a major injustice.

It sees the EAS DOES WORK.  If not, the 911 centers would have not seen a 
rise in calls.

MM

At 07:59 AM 7/3/2006 -0700, Larry Fuss wrote
>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.
>
>
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