Emergency Broadcast System Test(video)

[AllSafe]

There are so many radios out there with the Conelrad markers on them...I have had nine or ten of them (mostly pocket radios), including one GE radio made in 1950 I have right now which I restored.

[elc32955]

Conelrad used a 1000 hz tone to activate end devices and to open toned receivers. You can still find some of the old units used in the broadcast stations around, especially at national-level hamfests. I saw a Motorola Conelrad encoder/decoder setup at Dayton this year for $5.00, it looked like it was in really good condition. I had to make sure I had a ride back to Florida for this unit before I bought it (since it was about 30 lbs and 19-inch rack-mounted), and when I went back on it it was gone. Figures....

I have several of the old EBS encode/decode units sitting in the garage from old broadcast stations. They are still good as decoders if you monitor only one station with them, remember stations still have to send the attention signal (after the three FSK header bursts) and they're set up to work with the attention signal as-is. People tend to forget that the old equipment can still be useful depending on your application.

NOW... for the brain teaser.... Anyone know what was required to activate the old national level EBS system (pre-EAS) down at the local level?

Eric

[SirenEnthusiast360]

they use a code word, I'm not quite sure what it is.

[StonedChipmunk]

I used to be a fan of CONELRAD, EBS, EAS, and the upcoming DEAS, so I know a lot about this...

In the early days, EBS tests were done almost the same way as CONELRAD activations. Turn off station, back on, off, then back on to transmit a 1000 Hz tone. (I think, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm mixing something up.) But, later on I think the EBS switched over to a system similar to the EAS that, instead of a 1000 hz tone, used a 853 hz and 960 hz mixed tone. Not sure, it's hard to remember.

Scary part about the EBS system was the one false activation (and only national activation) ever: someone "accidentally" played the wrong tape (which sent the activation tone over the air) and sent the national activation bell alarm and codeword, "HATRED" or something (weird codeword), over the wire services they used (which was used by most stations to authenticate national activations, which normally prevented false alarms). A cancellation message was sent half an hour later. The sad/scary part about this was only one station in the entire US shut down its programming, but did not actually broadcast the EBS attack message over the air. If this was a real emergency, NOBODY IN THE UNITED STATES WOULD KNOW! Wow!

I just researched this topic and apparently every single day had a different codeword for activation and a different codeword for cancellation and every single TV/radio station had a list of codewords. A few samples of codewords: "glory, afterpiece, chinaman, fanfold, hempseed, catwalk, retrieve, resound, orgy". Orgy actually was the cancellation codeword for October 2, 1973 (see the list these words were on here or visit more info on the codewords here)...

I just also took an hour reading about the EBS and tons of other crap. I totally forgot what I am talking about. Sumbit!

[Archon]

So what does DEAS stand for???

[Archon]

In southeast WI They used EAS for Tornado Warnings You get the EAS FSK tone this activates the weather radios Than 30 secs of the EBS tone Than the message(Weather service is computer voiced) and than the 3 short EAS FSK tones On radio & TV you will hear the same formate but the stations weatherman will talk instead of WS Computer. And this gets real interesting at night when there are lots of warnings. TV & Radio only does EAS for Tornado warnings. The weather radio does EAS for sever weather watchs & warnings and tornado watches & warnings. And Marine warnings

[Archon]

DEAS Found it Digital EAS Very Interesting

[Travis]

I've always found the EAS FSK (I think) tone to be a little scary. Usually what happens during a tornado at home in Dallas is the TV program is muted the "oh s***!" tone goes out and then the screen goes black and the really ghetto EAS message pops up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6e_XqGxb4A

[StonedChipmunk]

DEAS stands for Digital Emergency Alert System. They're taking the currently-used EAS and porting it to every possible connectivity device: cell phone, pagers, computers, everything. Hopefully they'll also make a digital signal too and revamp the EAS so much that all stations will be federally mandated to buy new encoders and decoders that provide more information on the emergency. Furthermore, FEMA is also planning on allowing the DEAS to use instantaneous activation, because the EAS messages today trickle through the system (most stations listen to a "Local Primary" station, and monitor the EAS on that station) because if you've heard an EAS message (real emergency) before, you'll know that the header portion of the message can be anywhere from 12 seconds to 30 seconds, plus the audio message is recorded through the Local Primary station and, once it's over, played back. In theory, if the US Government found a nuclear missile headed for Washington DC and the missile was spotted over Los Angeles, depending on the speed of that missile and the length of the message, the EAS message could actually not finish by the time the missile hit (assuming it was a high-speed missile). In a world where weapons can be launched and can hit a target anywhere in the world in an hour, this is extremely important.

EDIT: SirenKid... nice catch there. I've got one too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfwGXzlT ... ed&search=
Be careful, the EAS notice is LOUD compared to the movie.
Problems with this clip:
First, the graphics are iffy. I'm not sure the EAS could broadcast that good of graphics. Of course, the DEAS probably could. The sound is of the right quality, though.
Next, the EAS message would probably be longer and repeat twice. However, EAS has a time limit, so that might not work. DEAS, though, claims to be able to send message with no definite ending (so if this actually happened with DEAS and you were on the other side of the country, you could watch and listen to an hour of some announcer talking about the status of the emergency, and what its effects were afterwards, and when it's finished they could press a button and go straight back to normal broadcasting) because the EAS system today has to have a specified time limit for the emergency (5 minutes, a day, a year, whatever).
Also, I'm unsure whether or not the station would go entirely off the air after the message was over (unless the station resided 30 miles from the strike zone, in that case I'd get the hell out of there).
Last, I'm pretty sure that the EAS decoder would broadcast that "ghetto-style" message instead of the Homeland Security logo.

[SirenEnthusiast360]

Every time they test the EAS where I live they have a text thing that crawls across the bottom of my tv screen, it says something like this. "The National Weather Servixe has issued a REQUIRED MONTHLY TEST of the Emergency Alert System. Please tune to channel 19 for more details" yet when tune my tv to that channel, I get the exact same message crawling across the bottom of my screen. I don't know if they do that for all tests, or if it is a bug in the system.