ITS 11/9!!! PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR AN OCEAN LINER TO CRASH INTO A BUILDING! NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED!

Ah, nothing.....nothing but an emergency test is going to happen on November 9th.

I wonder why we even have that system.

For emergencies?

like a major national disaster such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina? Never gets used.

Why would you make a national announcement about a localised event? Especially true in the case of Katrina which people could see coming for over a week.

TBH I'm unsure when it actually would be used?

Ok Katrina was a bad example, but yeah, when indeed?

Snowstorms, tornado warnings, missing children, etc.

Yeah... good point.

Air raids.

Curfews

$1 Whoppers at Burger King

Do you have any idea about how the EAS works?

No. None at all.

I'm Australian and am picturing great big towers rising from the ground with loudspeakers on them like in 1950's sci-fi movies.

The one in Sydney is just a series of speakers on public structures.

I'd like to know if you're happy to tell me?

Basically, the Emergency Alert System is a way for radio and TV stations to broadcast warnings of dangerous weather, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, etc. Every radio and TV station is required to broadcast a weekly 30-second test; the only thing that makes this test special is that it's being done by all radio and TV stations simultaneously. There's no special equipment involved, the Internet isn't involved, and there's no urgent catastrophe to worry about. This test has been planned for months - I work at a radio station, and we made sure last March that our EAS equipment was up to spec for this test. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

That's pretty cool man. I wonder how many other countries, other than the USA, do this.

It seems somewhat overly precautious but at the same time shows a large amount of government organisation.

Cheers

I'm sure other countries have similar systems, although I'm not aware of any specific ones.

I speculate that this "test" is a way to prepare all the networks and stations for a real emergency broadcast. They are claiming it is going to be a test because they want to have the emergency plans ready for distribution without any problems. I have two theories, one that the Asteroid YU-55 will either impact the earth or cause earthquakes when it passes by. The other theory I have formulated is that on the 9th Israel will attack Iran and in response to the attack there will be "terror" attacks on the U.S soil, either done by Iran or the CIA. They will use these "terror" attacks to gain public support for the invasion of Iran and the broadcast will be an actual emergency broadcast warning/telling citizens that Marshall law will be enacted in order to prevent more attacks in the coming weeks. You can't do anything but prepare, stock up on some water canned food and some good liquor, good Luck and enjoy your weekend!

or cause eathquakes when it passes by.

It's the size of an aircraft carrier. It barely has any gravity of its own. Of course, everything has it's own gravitational field but an asteroids is very small. Aircraft carriers don't cause undersea earthquakes, and they're much closer.

That's all I have to say.

It may have a strong magnetic field.

so "the size of an aircraft carrier" suggests to you that it has a molten iron core capable of producing a strong magnetic field?

something tells me you're not a scientist.

"A little knowledge is a..."

The asteroid is passing about 202k miles (0.8 LD) from the Earth, about 200 meters in size and if it does for some reason take a wild swing and impact us, it's crater will be 1,700 feet deep and about 4 miles wide at it's size and velocity if there was minimal atmosphere breakup. We've had similar asteroids pass by in recent years much closer, I doubt the test has anything to do with YU(can't drive)55 imo.

They don't want everyone thinking there is a real emergency and calling 9-1-1 to find out what it is.

Testing of a national emergency alert system.

No one is going to fall for the Yu55 asteroid hitting earth after a lot of people got embarrassed bugging out for nothing over the comet Elenin.

Guess you will find out soon enough

I'm pretty sure these happen all the time. I was watching tv a few weeks ago and it came on and freaked me out. I think it's really just a test.

test of the intrahthubes kill switch...

The what?

National EAS Test On November 9th http://www2.wsav.com/news/2011/nov/04/national-eas-november-9th-ar-2655763/

I'll be at work

The test was originally supposed to last a couple minutes but has since been bumped down to only 30 seconds per the FCC, documentation at local tv stations & video service providers state the test may last up to 1 minute though. A lot of stuff can happen in a minute, but my hotpocket will not be ready in that time.

i'm going to be even more anxious than i am today about skyrim