(This, of course, has not prevented conspiracy theorists from suggesting its lack of activation might be for a more sinister reason.)
As such, anybody watching TV could learn way more about what was happening than from a regular EAS activation. Even though only fifteen minutes passed between the two impacts on the World Trade Center, by the time the second plane hit (and everyone knew this was no accident), almost every channel in the country had already suspended its normal programming and was covering the event live. However, as nationwide emergencies go, it was so well covered that EAS wasn't necessary when the first plane hit the World Trade Center, most channels had suspended their normal programming to cover the event in record time (even though they couldn't be sure it wasn't just a horrendous accident).
Although the EAS can be activated for a wide variety of natural disasters ( e.g.The FCC levies heavy fines on broadcasters who break this rule. In fact, inserting a frivolous EAS tone could lead to an accidental activation of the real alert hardware. The government is very strict about works of fiction using the EAS tones they can only actually be used in a test or an actual emergency.In smaller communities, these sirens can be used to summon volunteer firefighters, but pagers are becoming more common for this purpose. near chemical or nuclear plants, or in a tornado-prone area) might also have warning sirens in conjunction with the alert, many of them repurposed air raid sirens from the Cold War era. Places particularly prone to natural disasters ( e.g.
The CONELRAD era was particularly famous for its test activations, often done in conjunction with "duck and cover" civil defense drills of how to survive a nuclear attack sometimes these drills are still done today, usually to prepare for a natural disaster.
These tests also introduced viewers to the loud attention beep, although modern broadcasts rely more on the three repeated "chirps" (which are actually an encoded ASCII string with specific information about the emergency type and location) they're also delightfully called "duck farts".
Much of the pop-culture awareness of the system derives from these tests, particularly their admonition that "this is only a test" and that if this were a real emergency, the broadcast would include important instructions. The weekly and monthly tests can also be skipped if a legitimate activation has already happened that week, since obviously everything is in working order. The system is tested frequently note At least one test is carried out every week, usually just to make sure all equipment is functional, but monthly tests and the annual national test go through an entire activation of the system.Modern weather radios and cell phones are sufficiently advanced that they can turn on to broadcast a warning (useful if it's the middle of the night). The modern version is known as the Emergency Alert System or EAS, because it's not just for broadcast - you can also get alerts on satellite and cable TV, weather radios, highway signs, or your cell phone, in addition to radio and OTA television. Then the government learned it could also be used to warn people about local emergencies like extreme weather events, upgraded the system, and renamed it the Emergency Broadcast System. The first version of it was called CONELRAD and designed for the very specific purpose of warning people that the Soviets were bombing. was the first country to institute a nationwide emergency broadcast system.