Reminder: EAS National Test Scheduled for Wednesday, September 27

ETRS Form 2 Due Same Day (Except for Hurricane-Impacted EAS Participants)

Assuming that it is not delayed due to a real national emergency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the FCC are still scheduled to conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Sept. 27, 2017, at 2:20 PM EDT.

As we reported previously, EAS participants should have filed their ETRS Form 1 providing information about their EAS equipment by this point. On Sept. 27, the FCC will expect that stations to monitor their equipment and, for most stations, file a "day-of-test" ETRS Form 2 by the end of the day.

Although the FCC is not delaying the national test itself,, the FCC is extending the Form 2 filing deadline for those stations impacted Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.,. In a Public Notice released September 22, the Media Bureau gave EAS participants located in areas of Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas impacted by the hurricanes until Nov. 13, 2017 to file their Form 2 reports.

Based on the form as currently available in ETRS (which will not be "live" for filing until the 27th), participants will simply be required to certify whether the station received and retransmitted the national test message.

Based on our experience with last year's test, we would expect that there will be some congestion in the ETRS system after the test, so you should probably be prepared to spend some time completing your filings.

Finally, all EAS participants will also be required to file a post-test ETRS Form 3 no later than Nov. 13, 2017. Based on the Form 3 currently available in the ETRS system, participants will be required to identify the specific times at which they received and retransmitted the test message, the source(s) from which they received the test (including which source it was received from first), the language in which the message was received and retransmitted, and any complications they experienced.

Please contact us if you have any questions about the EAS National Test or ETRS systems.