A test date for the next national EAS test will be announced soon.
TV Tech sister brand Radio World has confirmed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct the next national test of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts this year.
The most recent national EAS test was in 2021 and showed improvement over two years prior, according to a subsequent report by the Federal Communications Commission.
“Receipt and retransmission rates increased, while reported monitored source complications markedly decreased,” the FCC said then. But technical glitches highlighted the importance of those EAS stations that are monitored by many others, the FCC concluded.
Read about the FCC’s findings after the 2021 test.
“It is critically important that those EAS participants that are widely monitored use testing to ensure their EAS equipment is in reliable working order.”
The 2021 test — performed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the FCC — used only the broadcast-based distribution system, the so-called “EAS daisy chain,” and did not involve the internet-based IPAWS system.
In September of 2022 the FCC partnered with 37 emergency management agencies to conduct localized Wireless Emergency Alert tests. (Read its post-test findings.)
This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Radio World.
