EAS Nationwide Test Report Shows IPAWS Should Be Primary Alerting System, Says FCC

its requirements, and do targeted outreach to “Low Power broadcasters and other EAS Participants with poor performance” said the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a report on the test, issued Friday (see 1612280045). Though the test showed the effectiveness of the IPAWS alerts and the “vast majority” of over 20,000 participants received and retransmitted the test alert, there’s still room to improve, the report said. The September test was also a test of Spanish-language alerts. Spanish language alerts were available only on IPAWS, but stations are required to retransmit the first alert they receive, whether from IPAWS or over-the air from another broadcaster upstream in the “daisy chain” of EAS stations, EAS officials told us. Stations that received the alert first from another broadcast station didn't have the option to transmit in Spanish, even if they served a Spanish-language audience. Over half the alerts in the test were triggered through the over-the-air system, rather than IPAWS, the report said. The IPAWS alert also delivers other content, such as text files, that isn't available in the over-the-air alert. “In light of the additional capabilities offered by IP-based alerts, the Commission should facilitate and encourage the use of IPAWS as the primary source of alerts nationwide,” the report said. Many of the stations that didn’t retransmit the test alert did so because of equipment errors or not following EAS requirements, the report said. The FCC should “take measures to improve EAS Participants’ compliance with and understanding” of the rules, the report said.