Scheduled Nationwide Emergency Alert Tests

On Friday, June 11, 2021, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (“Bureau”) released a Public Notice (DA 21-680) announcing the date of the next nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (“EAS”) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (“WEA”). The Public Notice also provides additional details for EAS participants and the opening of the EAS Test Reporting System.

Nationwide EAS and WEA Test: The primary test date is scheduled for Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 2:20PM Eastern Daylight Time. The secondary test date is scheduled for Wednesday, August 25, 2021 at 2:20PM EDT, should conditions on the primary test date warrant a cancellation.

EAS Procedures: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) will initiate the EAS portion of the nationwide test using the hierarchical, broadcast-based distribution system, also known as the “daisy chain.” The alert will only be disseminated in English. This test will allow the FCC and FEMA to assess the reliability and effectiveness of broadcast-based alerting as part of the national emergency communications infrastructure.

As a reminder, all EAS participants MUST participate in the nationwide EAS test. In preparation for the test, the Bureau encourages all EAS participants to take proper steps including: reviewing the EAS Operating Handbook and ensure a copy is located at all normal duty positions, reviewing the state EAS Plan for monitoring assignments, ensuring EAS equipment can receive and process the NPT code, the “six zeroes” national location code, and comply with all other Commission rules, upgrading EAS equipment software and firmware to the most recent versions, and manually synchronizing EAS equipment clocks to the official time provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

EAS Test Reporting System: The Public Notice also alerts EAS participants that the EAS Test Reporting System (“ETRS”) is now open to accept all filings related to the 2021 nationwide test. The Public Notice reminds EAS participants that they must renew their identifying information on a yearly basis. Therefore, EAS participants MUST complete the 2021 ETRS Form One on or before July 6, 2021. All EAS participants must complete ETRS Form One except the following: analog and digital low power television stations that operate as television broadcast translator stations; FM broadcast booster stations and FM translator stations which entirely rebroadcast the programming of other local FM broadcast stations; and analog and digital broadcast stations that operate as satellites or repeaters of a hub station and rebroadcast 100 percent of the programming of the hub station.

EAS participants may complete the filings by logging into the ETRS system with their registered FCC Username and FCC Registration Number (“FRN”). EAS filers can access the ETRS form through the system and can pre-populate Form One by completing either the FRN and Public System ID (PSID) fields (for cable systems), or the FRN and Facility ID fields (for broadcasters). The Bureau strongly encourages filers to double-check all prepopulated information. The Public Notice reminds EAS

participants that they should file a separate copy of Form One for each of its EAS decoders, EAS encoders, or units combining such decoder and encoder functions. Finally, the Bureau will provide EAS participants thirty days after submission (on or before August 5, 2021) to update or correct the 2021 Form One filing.

EAS participants are also required to complete EAS Form Two (reporting “day of test” information) and EAS Form Three (reporting detailed post-test data). The deadline for EAS Form Two is on or before August 12, 2021, and the deadline for EAS Form Three is on or before September 27, 2021. Both forms will be available in the ETRS at the time of the initiations of the 2021 nationwide test.

Public Comments: The Bureau encourages members of the public and interested stakeholder organizations to provide useful feedback on the nationwide test, including the delivery of the EAS message or any feedback concerning the receipt of or failure to receive the WEA test alert. Comments can be reported to the Public Safety Support Center.

Please let us know if you have any questions or would like additional information.

This column is provided for general information purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice pertaining to any specific factual situation. Legal decisions should be made only after proper consultation with a legal professional of your choosing.