ARES/RACES of Delaware County will have a Net on the W3KG repeater to confirm receipt of today's FEMA/FCC test of the Public Alert and Warning Infrastructures. This test message is scheduled to be sent out starting at around 2:20pm on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.

FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will test the nation’s public alert and warning systems at 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday. FEMA regularly tests the public alert and warning systems to assess the operational readiness of the supporting infrastructure. The tests also help identify any needed technological and administrative improvements to the systems.

This week’s testing will be the sixth test of the nationwide public alert and warning systems and has been planned since June 2020. The purpose of the test is to assess the effectiveness of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to receive and convey a national message via radio and television and of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) infrastructure to deliver a test message to mobile phones.

Full FEMA Press Release:

Since this is a Test message, it will only be displayed on your mobile phone if you have enabled receiving test messages. 

There is "Wireless emergency alerts" setting screen on Android devices in order to enable this.  On iPhone, use your Phone app Keypad to call *5005*25371# and click on the Call button.  You'll be shown an alert that "Test Alerts Enabled".  Full detailed instructions are here:

Please join us from 2:00p until 3:30p to report on the W3KG repeater when you've received this message (or to report if you haven't gotten it by 3:00p).

There is a ReDI Mission setup to register for, please do so if you are planning on attending.

Mission Link: https://codelaware.galaxydigital.com/need/detail/?need_id=612099

Also, our ARES Section Manager, George Miller, is also requesting checkins from those that have 80m capabilities, please check in here as well if you can:

I’d like to attempt to respond to the Emergency Alert by activating the EPAEPTN on 3918 when the test message is received on Wednesday at 2:20 PM.

If you are available and can get on the air, please call me on 3918 KHz. This will basically be a test to see if we can self-activate in response to a National Emergency signal.

73,

George Miller W3GWM
Eastern Pennsylvania Section Manager
293 Woods Rd.
Wyalusing, PA
(570) 250-1007
w3gwm@arrl.org

We should all be ready to checkin to a Net in case of any emergency, so this is a great opportunity to do so.  In the event of a real national emergency alert, this should be the second thing that you do, after ensuring the safety of you and your family.

Let me know if you have any questions.