RMT Alert?

[Davis0023]

never saw that or anything really like it....interesting

 

[paddling_man]

Verizon may have been the only carrier testing it, but it's part of the new Wireless EAS system. It's the same EAS system that alerts TV and radio. Personally, I hate the system. Once you see the message (on TV, anyway), you can't turn it off. So, when I'm tracking a storm, with detailed radar and news coverage, suddenly I lose all access to news for the next five minutes, right when I need it the most.

All new (smart)phones are supposed to have support for it, and you can't turn the "feature" off, although I think you can disable certain types of alerts.

You're on cable?

Required Monthly Tests are started by one originator station in town (think it is one of the Clear Channel radio stations in the Indy DMA.) Every TV station, as an obligation of their FCC license, must rebroadcast the alert within a defined time frame. The RMTs used to be surprises... not anymore. The last decade or so, the originator stations sends out the date/time to all DMA participants a year in advance. It happens once per month and should be over in 60 seconds.

RWT (Required Weekly Tests) are scheduled by each station independently and never go over programming but usually have a slate.

Of all other alerts, only an EAN (Emergency Action Notification) that is sent by the President, is required to be relayed. The National has only been used once... ever... in a test back in November. It revealed some gaping holes.

The only stations that relay the raw EAS alerts for weather, etc., are small-market, public non-profit, no-news entertainment stations, and unmanned stations. Weather is one of the biggest ratings hits for a station dependent on news and they want you watching their radar, meteorologists etc.

Here is the rub... cable. CATV subscribers have MANY channels that are non-local in nature that a viewer would not be cued to an emergency (take cover!) event. The way around it is for the cable system to monitor the EAS at their headend and retransmit the raw EAS Wx alerts. A sophisticated CATV provider has the ability to only run the alerts over the channels they choose... HBO, ESPN, Food Network, etc.. In turn, they left the channels uninterrupted who were local news venues.

Unfortunately, the growing digital cable plants, while having many new advantages, lost part of that selective ability. Some cable co's have the granular equipment in place to cherry pick which stations (channel numbers) were overridden by their raw EAS alert. Comcast in the Indy DMA is complicated by having some radically different systems meshed due to recent acquisitions.

Comcast/Indy's response is to retune your receive to one single, obnoxious, raw EAS channel. "They control the horizontal. They control the vertical." They assure the local news stations that they are working the problem to achieve the level of finite control to again exempt the local news viewers from this retune. They're not there yet.

The local news stations are pretty danged unhappy about it too.

 

[paddling_man]

FYI:

I got the alert today on my phone too. Verizon, Droid X, Android V 2.3.3, System V 4.5.605.MB810.

Go to APPLICATIONS & EMERGENCY ALERTS. Under SETTINGS, under RECEIVE ALERTS, I can turn on/off:

EXTREME ALERT:
SEVERE ALERT:
AMBER ALERT:

The phone version of an EAN, "PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL ALERT" is "MANDATORY" and cannot be turned off.

If one wanted to don an aluminum beanie, one might be concerned that the Feds, if they wish, could simply turn off all cell access at a handheld level.

I'm not that conspiracy oriented but I don't necessarily like it either. If one can easily learn how to root an iPhone, then I'm guessing a simple hack to eliminate this enhanced feature on a smart phone is forthcoming from some pasty-faced geek sitting in his room on his PC with upgraded tower fans to 48 volt units with a 3.5cfm linear back flow, 920GB of ram and 16 42" monitors. Half the array streams porn while the other half plays each individual world of warcraft character they have personally built over the last 10 years.

Just sayin'.

 

[jeremy]

FYI:

I got the alert today on my phone too. Verizon, Droid X, Android V 2.3.3, System V 4.5.605.MB810.

Go to APPLICATIONS & EMERGENCY ALERTS. Under SETTINGS, under RECEIVE ALERTS, I can turn on/off:

EXTREME ALERT:
SEVERE ALERT:
AMBER ALERT:

The phone version of an EAN, "PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL ALERT" is "MANDATORY" and cannot be turned off.

If one wanted to don an aluminum beanie, one might be concerned that the Feds, if they wish, could simply turn off all cell access at a handheld level.

I'm not that conspiracy oriented but I don't necessarily like it either. If one can easily learn how to root an iPhone, then I'm guessing a simple hack to eliminate this enhanced feature on a smart phone is forthcoming from some pasty-faced geek sitting in his room on his PC with upgraded tower fans to 48 volt units with a 3.5cfm linear back flow, 920GB of ram and 16 42" monitors. Half the array streams porn while the other half plays each individual world of warcraft character they have personally built over the last 10 years.

Just sayin'.

Soooo....

What your saying is that you are working on it....

 

[Stschil]

FYI:

I got the alert today on my phone too. Verizon, Droid X, Android V 2.3.3, System V 4.5.605.MB810.

Go to APPLICATIONS & EMERGENCY ALERTS. Under SETTINGS, under RECEIVE ALERTS, I can turn on/off:

EXTREME ALERT:
SEVERE ALERT:
AMBER ALERT:

The phone version of an EAN, "PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL ALERT" is "MANDATORY" and cannot be turned off.

If one wanted to don an aluminum beanie, one might be concerned that the Feds, if they wish, could simply turn off all cell access at a handheld level.

I'm not that conspiracy oriented but I don't necessarily like it either. If one can easily learn how to root an iPhone, then I'm guessing a simple hack to eliminate this enhanced feature on a smart phone is forthcoming from some pasty-faced geek sitting in his room on his PC with upgraded tower fans to 48 volt units with a 3.5cfm linear back flow, 920GB of ram and 16 42" monitors. Half the array streams porn while the other half plays each individual world of warcraft character they have personally built over the last 10 years.

Just sayin'.

Midget Clown Porn?

 

[Exodus]

I'm not that conspiracy oriented but I don't necessarily like it either. If one can easily learn how to root an iPhone, then I'm guessing a simple hack to eliminate this enhanced feature on a smart phone is forthcoming from some pasty-faced geek sitting in his room on his PC with upgraded tower fans to 48 volt units with a 3.5cfm linear back flow, 920GB of ram and 16 42" monitors. Half the array streams porn while the other half plays each individual world of warcraft character they have personally built over the last 10 years.

Just sayin'.

LMAO, you seem to know a good amount.

 

[Westside]

I'm on Verizon and did not get one.

Same here. On Verizon no message.

 

[paddling_man]

Soooo....

What your saying is that you are working on it....

Don't you have a wagon to go drive around??

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Verizon here, still nothing. Please DO let me know when you work this out though PM, thanx

 

[jeremy]

Don't you have a wagon to go drive around??

Wagon?!

This ain't the '80's here...

 

[Tactical Flannel]

Interesting.
Hadn't heard anything about this.
I've got two Verizon phones and didn't recieve any alerts.

Stay safe

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Interesting.
Hadn't heard anything about this.
I've got two Verizon phones and didn't recieve any alerts.

Stay safe

And what have we learned about Gov. projects that we hear nothing about until AFTER implementation?

 

[Bill of Rights]

 

[Goober135]

I assume this is just a preemptive update for 12/21/12?