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Wednesday's National EAS Test Gets Some Tweaking
The first ever national emergency alert system test scheduled this week won't be as comprehensive as originally planned.

The test is still on for all broadcast platfroms-- radio, television, cable, and satellite--for 1pm Wednesday.

But as WGIL's Engineer Rich Heath explains, it won't last as long as previously planned.

"What happened last week was Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano issued a change to the emergency action notification, or EAN," Heath said. "It was supposed to be something in the neighborhood of 3 to 3 1/2 minutes to give it a complete test. (They) dropped it down to about 30 seconds of message, and by the time the tones and various other components of the test are completed, it will probably come out to not anthing more than about a minute."

Heath says the change comes after requests from the cable television association and representatives of the hearing impaired.

He says there were concerns that a person watching TV with a hearing impairment wouldn't properly be notified of the test and could panic.

According to Heath, the abbreviated notification won't yield the same results first expected, but will still offer insight on improving the national alert procedure.

For more details on the National EAS test, CLICK HERE (pdf document).
11 08 11 by Newsroom
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