Emergency Alert System

[Brandon Clement]

Hopefully the OP will come back and let us know what model of weather radio he has that was triggered, but on the Radio Shack and Reecom units I have in service, both RMT and RWT are disabled and will not audibly alert but only will display a message.

Here's the EAS primary and secondary assignments for Mississippi http://www.msbroadcasters.org/2011/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&Itemid=162 and NOAA Weather Radio is listed as an originating source for the month of June.

I have a couple but the one in my bedroom is a Radioshack 732r. I use that one in the bedroom because it seconds as an alarm clock and the warnings and same codes are programmable. I had turned weather alarms off on this one because the only reason I use it is for late night tornadoes in my county and I'm not really worried about tornadoes in June in Ms even though we still get tornado warnings at times.

The one in the kitchen is a couple years old and I can't read the model number since it has endured quite a few chase trips. It is also from radio shack and is a silver and kind of a square shape with programmable alerts. You can't program it by SAME codes. This one went off and has never gone off for a test before then (other than display).

 

[Bob Wagner]

Thank you Bob.

So this test is solely for MEMA and isn't nationwide?

That's correct, it's just for Mississippi.

 

[Bob Wagner]

Thanks - any idea why this one would have activated NOAA Weather Radios with test messages turned off? Or maybe some radios need both codes disabled?

Since I wasn't on duty, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess whether it triggered or not. The coding issue may be the problem. I don't know how many offices use the RMT, so people may not know to disable it, if they don't want to receive it.

 

[Matt Tottle]

I've only noticed one RMT in the two years since I've lived here. It was on my old RS (which doesn't have defeatable alerts, it's circa 1997), and I do remember it being at an incredibly odd time. I think it was around midnight, and it seems to me there was no message attached to it - it just alerted the test, had a few seconds of silence, then did the EOM. None of my other radios alerted (I have all Reecoms) but they showed the test message, presumably the RMT comes defeated by default on them. But like I said, that's the only RMT I ever remember hearing the weather radio go off for. I chalked it up to someone fat fingering when they coded the test into the ENDEC.

 

[Kirk Chestnut]

Kansas issued ENDECS statewide to all the NWS offices in order to carry AMBER Alerts. It isn't beyond imagination to think a rogue RMT slipped through at Russell. As to the situation in MS, I don't know. Watch for manufacturers to provide improved filtering as the nation transitions to CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) delivery. November 9th will be the first ever Nationwide EAS test. More information on the transition: https://nationaldialogue-emergencyalertsystem.ideascale.com/