PART 11 - EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)

PART 11 - EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS) April 17, 2000

Subpart A - General

Section

11.1 Purpose.

11.11 The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

11.12 Two-tone Attention Signal Encoder and Decoder.

11.13 Emergency Action Notification (EAN) and Emergency Action Termination (EAT).

11.14 EAN Network and Primary Entry Point (PEP) System.

11.15 EAS Operating Handbook.

11.16 National Control Point Procedures.

11.18 EAS Designations.

11.19 EAS Non-participating National Authorization Letter.

11.20 State Relay Network.

11.21 State and Local Area Plans and FCC Mapbook.

Subpart B - Equipment Requirements

11.31 EAS protocol.

11.32 EAS Encoder.

11.33 EAS Decoder.

11.34 Acceptability of the equipment.

11.35 Equipment operational readiness.

Subpart C - Organization

11.41 Participation in EAS.

11.42 Participation by communications common carriers.

11.43 National level participation.

11.44 EAS message priorities.

11.45 Prohibition of false or deceptive EAS transmissions.

11.46 EAS public service announcements.

11.47 Optional use of other communications methods and systems.

Subpart D - Emergency Operations

11.51 EAS code and Attention Signal Transmission requirements.

11.52 EAS code and Attention Signal Monitoring requirements.

11.53 Dissemination of Emergency Action Notification.

11.54 EAS operation during a National Level emergency.

11.55 EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency.

Subpart E - Tests

11.61 Tests of EAS procedures.

11.62 Closed Circuit Tests of National Level EAS facilities.

Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i) and (o), 303(r), 544(g) and 606.

Subpart A - General

11.1 Purpose.

This part contains rules and regulations providing for an Emergency Alert System (EAS). The EAS provides the President with the capability to provide immediate communications and information to the general public at the National, State and Local Area levels during periods of national emergency. The rules in this part describe the required technical standards and operational procedures of the EAS for AM, FM and TV broadcast stations, cable systems and other participating entities. The EAS may be used to provide the heads of State and local government, or their designated representatives, with a means of emergency communication with the public in their State or Local Area.

11.11 The Emergency Alert System (EAS).

(a) The EAS is composed of broadcast networks; cable networks and program suppliers; AM, FM, Low Power FM (LPFM) and TV broadcast stations; Class A television (CA) stations; Low Power TV (LPTV) stations; cable systems; wireless cable systems which may consist of Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS), Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS), or Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) stations; and other entities and industries operating on an organized basis during emergencies at the National, State and local levels. It requires that at a minimum all participants use a common EAS protocol, as defined in § 11.31, to send and receive emergency alerts in accordance with the effective dates in the following tables:

TIMETABLE

BROADCAST STATIONS

_REQUIREMENT	_{AM & FM}	_TV	_{FM CLASS D}	_LPTV₁	_LPFM	_{CLASS A TV}
_{Two-tone encoder}_2,3	_Y	_Y	_N	_N	_N	_Y
_{Two-tone decoder}	_Y	_Y	_Y	_Y	_Y	_Y
_{EAS decoder}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_Y	_Y
_{EAS encoder}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_N	_N	_N	_Y
_{Audio message}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_{Y 1/1/97}	_Y	_Y
_{Video message}	_N/A	_{Y 1/1/97}	_N/A	_{Y 1/1/97}	_N/A	_Y

1/ LPTV stations that operate as television broadcast translator stations are exempt from the requirement to have EAS equipment.

2/ Effective July 1, 1995, the two-tone signal must be 8-25 seconds.

3/ Effective January 1, 1998, the two-tone signal may only be used to provide audio alerts to audiences before EAS emergency messages and the required monthly tests.

EAS REQUIREMENTS CABLE SYSTEMS
A. Cable systems serving fewer than 5,000 subscribers from a headend must either provide the National level EAS message on all programmed channels--including the required testing--by October 1, 2002, or comply with the following EAS requirements. All other cable systems must comply with B.
B. EAS Equipment Requirement
	System size and effective dates
	> 10,000 subscribers	>5,000 but < 10,000 subscribers	<5,000 subscribers
Two-tone signal from storage device¹	Y 12/31/98	Y 10/1/02	Y 10/1/02
Two-tone decoder	N	N	N
EAS decoder	Y 12/31/98	Y 10/1/02	Y 10/1/02
EAS encoder	Y 12/31/98	Y 10/1/02	Y 10/1/02
Audio and Video EAS Message on all channels	Y 12/31/98	Y 10/1/02	N
Video interrupt and audio alert message on all channels;² Audio and Video EAS message on at least one channel.	N	N	Y 10/1/02

1/ Two-tone signal is only used to provide an audio alert to audience before EAS emergency messages and required monthly test. The two-tone signal must be 8-25 seconds in duration.

2/ The Video interrupt must cause all channels that carry programming to flash for the duration of the EAS emergency message. The audio alert must give the channel where the EAS messages are carried and be repeated for the duration of the EAS message.

NOTE: Programmed channels do not include channels used for the transmission of data such as interactive games.

Wireless Cable Systems (MDS/MMDS/ITFS STATIONS)
A. Wireless cable systems serving fewer than 5,000 subscribers from a single transmission site must either provide the National level EAS message on all programmed channels—including the required testing--by October 1, 2002, or comply with the following EAS requirements. All other wireless cable systems must comply with B.
B. EAS Equipment Requirement
	System size and effective dates
	> 5,000 subscribers	< 5,000 subscribers
EAS decoder	Y 10/1/02	Y 10/1/02
EAS encoder¹	Y 10/1/02	Y 10/1/02
Audio and Video EAS Message on all channels	Y 10/1/02	N
Video interrupt and audio alert message on all channels;² Audio and Video EAS message on at least one channel	N	Y 10/1/02

1/ Two-tone signal is only used to provide an audio alert to audience before EAS emergency messages and required monthly test. The two-tone signal must be 8-25 seconds in duration.

NOTE: Programmed channels do not include channels used for the transmission of data services such as Internet.

(b) Class D non-commercial educational FM stations as defined in § 73.506, LPFM stations as defined in §§ 73.811 and 73.853, and LPTV stations as defined in § 74.701(f) are not required to comply with § 11.32. LPTV stations that operate as television broadcast translator stations, as defined in § 74.701(b) are not required to comply with the requirements of this part. FM broadcast booster stations as defined in § 74.1201(f) of this chapter and FM translator stations as defined in § 74.1201(a) of this chapter which entirely rebroadcast the programming of other local FM broadcast stations are not required to comply with the requirements of this part.

(c) For purposes of the EAS, Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS) and Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) stations operated in accordance with Subpart K of Part 21 and Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) stations operated as part of wireless cable systems in accordance with Subpart I of Part 74 are defined as follows:

(1) a "wireless cable system" is a collection of channels in the MDS, MMDS, or ITFS used to provide video programming services to subscribers. The channels may be licensed to or leased by the wireless cable system operator.

(2) a "wireless cable operator" is the entity that has acquired the right to use the channels of a wireless cable system for transmission of programming to subscribers.

(d) Local franchise authorities and cable television system operators may enter into mutual agreements that require the installation of EAS equipment before the required dates listed above. Additionally, local franchise authorities may use any EAS codes authorized by the FCC in any agreements.

(e) Organizations using other communications systems or technologies such as, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), low earth orbit satellite systems, paging, computer networks, etc. may join the EAS on a voluntary basis by contacting the FCC. Organizations that choose to voluntarily participate must comply with the requirements of this part.

11.12 Two-tone Attention Signal Encoder and Decoder.

Existing two-tone Attention Signal Encoder and Decoder equipment type accepted for use as Emergency Broadcast System equipment under Part 73 may be used by broadcast stations until January 1, 1998, provided that such equipment meets the requirements of §§ 11.32(a)(9) and § 11.33(b). Effective January 1, 1998, the two-tone Attention Signal Decoder will no longer be required and the two-tone Attention Signal will be used to provide an audio alert.

11.13 Emergency Action Notification (EAN) and Emergency Action Termination (EAT).

(a) The Emergency Action Notification (EAN) is the notice to all broadcast stations, cable systems and wireless cable systems, other regulated services of the FCC, participating industry entities, and to the general public that the EAS has been activated for a national emergency.

(b) The Emergency Action Termination (EAT) is the notice to all broadcast stations, cable systems and wireless cable systems, other regulated services of the FCC, participating industry entities, and to the general public that the EAN has terminated.

11.14 EAN Network and Primary Entry Point (PEP) System.

(a) The EAN network is a dedicated communications service connecting industry networks, wire services and common carriers with government activation points. It is used to distribute EAN and Termination messages. The industry control locations retransmit the EAN message, the Presidential message, and the Termination message on their facilities to their affiliates.

(b) The PEP system is a nationwide network of broadcast stations connected with government activation points. It can also be used to distribute EAN and EAT.

11.15 EAS Operating Handbook.

The EAS Operating Handbook states in summary form the actions to be taken by personnel at broadcast stations, cable systems and wireless cable systems, and other participating entities upon receipt of an EAN, an EAT, tests, or State and Local Area alerts. It is issued by the FCC and contains instructions for the above situations. A copy of the Handbook must be located at normal duty positions or EAS equipment locations when an operator is required to be on duty and be immediately available to staff responsible for authenticating messages and initiating actions.

11.16 National Control Point Procedures.

The National Control Point Procedures are written instructions issued by the FCC to national level EAS control points. They are for use by the participating radio and television networks, cable networks and program suppliers, common carriers and wire services. The procedures are divided into sections as follows:

(a) National Level EAS Activation. This section contains the activation and termination instructions for Presidential messages.

(b) EAS Test Transmissions. This section contains the instructions for testing the EAS at the National level.

(c) National Information Center (NIC). This section contains instructions for distributing United States Government official information messages after completion of the National Level EAS activation and termination actions.

11.18 EAS Designations.

(a) National Primary (NP) is a source of EAS Presidential messages.

(b) Local Primary (LP) is a source of EAS Local Area messages. An LP source is responsible for coordinating the carriage of common emergency messages from sources such as the NWS or local emergency management offices as specified in its EAS Local Area Plan. If it is unable to carry out this function, other LP sources in the Local Area may be assigned the responsibility as indicated in State and Local Area Plans. LP sources are assigned numbers (LP-1, 2, 3, etc.) in the sequence they are to be monitored by other broadcast stations in the Local Area.

(c) State Primary (SP) is a source of EAS State messages. These messages can originate from the Governor or a designated representative in the State Emergency Operating Center (EOC) or State Capital. Messages are sent via the State Relay Network.

(d) State Relay (SR) is a relay source of EAS State messages. It is part of the State Relay Network and relays National and State common emergency messages into Local Areas.

(e) Participating National (PN) sources transmit EAS National, State or Local Area messages. The EAS transmissions of PN sources are intended for direct public reception.

(f) Non‑participating National (NN) sources have elected not to participate in the National level EAS and hold an authorization letter to that effect. Upon activation of the national level EAS, NN sources are required to broadcast the EAS codes, Attention Signal, the sign-off announcement in the EAS Operating Handbook and then stop operating. All NN sources are required to comply with § 11.51, § 11.52 and § 11.61 of this part. They may transmit EAS State or Local Area messages at any time without prior notice.

11.19 EAS Non-participating National Authorization Letter.

This authorization letter is issued by the FCC to broadcast station licensees and cable systems and wireless cable systems. It states that the licensee, cable operator or wireless cable operator has agreed to go off the air or in the case of cable discontinue programming on all channels during a national level EAS message. For broadcast licensees this authorization will remain in effect through the period of the initial license and subsequent renewals from the time of issuance unless returned by the holder or suspended, modified or withdrawn by the Commission.

11.20 State Relay Network.

This network is composed of State Relay (SR) sources, leased common carrier communications facilities or any other available communication facilities. The network distributes State EAS messages originated by the Governor or designated official. In addition to EAS monitoring, satellites, microwave, FM subcarrier or any other communications technology may be used to distribute State emergency messages.

11.21 State and Local Area Plans and FCC Mapbook.

EAS plans contain guidelines which must be followed by broadcast and cable personnel, emergency officials and National weather Service (NWS) personnel to activate the EAS. The plans include the EAS header codes and messages that will be transmitted by key EAS sources (NP, LP, SP and SR). State and local plans contain unique methods of EAS message distribution such as the use of RBDS. The plans must be reviewed and approved by the Chief, Technical and Public Safety Division, Enforcement Bureau, prior to implementation to ensure that they are consistent with national plans, FCC regulations, and EAS operation.

(a) The State plan contains procedures for State emergency management and other State officials, the NWS, and broadcast and cable personnel to transmit emergency information to the public during a State emergency using the EAS.

(b) The Local Area plan contains procedures for local officials or the NWS to transmit emergency information to the public during a local emergency using the EAS. Local plans may be a part of the State plan. A Local Area is a geographical area of contiguous communities or counties that may include more than one state.

(c) The FCC Mapbook is based on the above plans. It organizes all broadcast stations and cable systems according to their State, EAS Local Area and EAS designation.

Subpart B - Equipment Requirements

11.31 EAS protocol.

(a) The EAS uses a four part message for an emergency activation of the EAS. The four parts are; Preamble and EAS Header Codes, audio Attention Signal, message, and, Preamble and EAS End Of Message Codes.

(1) The Preamble and EAS Codes must use Audio Frequency Shift Keying at a rate of 520.83 bits per second to transmit the codes. Mark frequency is 2083.3 Hz and space frequency is 1562.5 Hz. Mark and space time must be 1.92 milliseconds. Characters are ASCII seven bit characters as defined in ANSI X3.4-1977 ending with an eighth null bit (either 1 or 0) to constitute a full eight-bit byte.

(2) The Attention Signal must be made up of the fundamental frequencies of 853 and 960 Hz. The two tones must be transmitted simultaneously. The Attention Signal must be transmitted after the EAS header codes.

(3) The message may be audio, video or text.

(b) The ASCII dash and plus symbols are required and may not be used for any other purpose. Unused characters must be ASCII space characters. FM or TV call signs must use a slash ASCII character number 47 (/) in lieu of a dash.

(c) The EAS protocol, including any codes, must not be amended, extended or abridged without FCC authorization. The EAS protocol and message format are specified in the following representation. Examples are provided in FCC Public Notices.

_______________________________________________________________________

[PREAMBLE]ZCZC-ORG-EEE-PSSCCC+TTTT-JJJHHMM-LLLLLLLL-

(one second pause)

[PREAMBLE]ZCZC-ORG-EEE-PSSCCC+TTTT-JJJHHMM-LLLLLLLL-

(one second pause)

[PREAMBLE]ZCZC-ORG-EEE-PSSCCC+TTTT-JJJHHMM-LLLLLLLL-

(at least a one second pause)

(transmission of 8 to 25 seconds of Attention Signal)

(transmission of audio, video or text messages)

(at least a one second pause)

[PREAMBLE]NNNN

(one second pause)

[PREAMBLE]NNNN

(one second pause)

[PREAMBLE]NNNN

(at least one second pause)

_______________________________________________________________________

[PREAMBLE] This is a consecutive string of bits (sixteen bytes of AB hexadecimal [8 bit byte 10101011]) sent to clear the system, set AGC and set asynchronous decoder clocking cycles. The preamble must be transmitted before each header and End Of Message code.

ZCZC- This is the identifier, sent as ASCII characters ZCZC to indicate the start of ASCII code.

ORG- This is the Originator code and indicates who originally initiated the activation of the EAS. These codes are specified in paragraph (d) of this section.

EEE- This is the Event code and indicates the nature of the EAS activation. The codes are specified in paragraph (e) of this section. The Event codes must be compatible with the codes used by the NWS Weather Radio Specific Area Message Encoder (WRSAME).

PSSCCC- This is the Location code and indicates the geographic area affected by the EAS alert. There may be 31 Location codes in an EAS alert. The Location code uses the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) numbers as described by the U.S. Department of Commerce in National Institute of Standards and Technology publication FIPS PUB 6-4. Each state is assigned an SS number as specified in paragraph (f) of this section. Each county and some cities are assigned a CCC number. A CCC number of 000 refers to an entire State or Territory. P defines county subdivisions as follows: 0 = all or an unspecified portion of a county, 1 = Northwest, 2 = North Central, 3 = Northeast, 4 = West Central, 5 = Central, 6 = East Central, 7 = Southwest, 8 = South Central, 9 = Southeast. Other numbers may be designated later for special applications. The use of county subdivisions will probably be rare and generally for oddly shaped or unusually large counties. Any subdivisions must be defined and agreed to by the local officials prior to use.

+TTTT- This indicates the valid time period of a message in 15 minute segments up to one hour and then in 30 minute segments beyond one hour; i.e., +0015, +0030, +0045, +0100, +0430 and +0600.

JJJHHMM- This is the day in Julian Calendar days (JJJ) of the year and the time in hours and minutes (HHMM) when the message was initially released by the originator using 24 hour Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).

LLLLLLLL- This is the identification of the broadcast station, cable system, MDS/MMDS/ITFS station, NWS office, etc., transmitting or retransmitting the message. These codes will be automatically affixed to all outgoing messages by the EAS encoder.

NNNN This is the End of Message (EOM) code sent as a string of four ASCII N characters.

(d) The only originator codes are:

Originator ORG Code

Emergency Action Notification Network EAN

Primary Entry Point System PEP

National Weather Service WXR

Civil authorities CIV

Broadcast station or cable system EAS

(e) The following Event (EEE) codes are presently authorized:

Nature of Activation Event Codes Nature of Activation Event Codes

National Codes:

Emergency Action Notification EAN

(National only) Flood Watch FLA

Emergency Action Termination EAT Flood Warning FLW

(National only) Flood Statement FLS

National Information Center NIC Winter Storm Watch WSA

National Periodic Test NPT Winter Storm Warning WSW

Required Monthly Test RMT Blizzard Warning BZW

Required Weekly Test RWT High Wind Watch HWA