We can all see what happened and hear the EAS phone warnings. It's frankly implausible to suggest they weren't coded right for radio or the station in Houston was outside of the warned area. If you have some proof to the contrary then you can show us the facts. This is an EAS failure at KSEV, it's crystal clear to anyone not looking to turn it into a ridiculous internet fight.
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Nasty storm - any stations suffer damage?
- Thread starter BamaTX
- Start date
We can all see what happened and hear the EAS phone warnings. It's frankly implausible to suggest they weren't coded right for radio or the station in Houston was outside of the warned area. If you have some proof to the contrary then you can show us the facts. This is an EAS failure at KSEV, it's crystal clear to anyone not looking to turn it into a ridiculous internet fight.
I don't recall the FCC requiring stations broadcast EAS weather alerts, or forward them, or repeat them.
Isn't the WX band starion KGG68 broadcasting from the KSEV tower? Kind of ironic, if nothing else.
Before we start throwing accusations around that none of us can substantiate, a reminder:
Participation in the EAS system is mandatory only to the extent of having a working encoder and relaying EAN (national alerts) and weekly and monthly tests.
Everything else is voluntary. It is probably a terrible idea to not relay something like a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning, but it's legal.
Furthermore, we don't know from this video whether the station might have already relayed the warning before the video started and the wireless alert went off. That's also entirely possible.
Let's avoid speculating without facts - and there aren't enough facts here to develop a definite conclusion.
Participation in the EAS system is mandatory only to the extent of having a working encoder and relaying EAN (national alerts) and weekly and monthly tests.
Everything else is voluntary. It is probably a terrible idea to not relay something like a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning, but it's legal.
Furthermore, we don't know from this video whether the station might have already relayed the warning before the video started and the wireless alert went off. That's also entirely possible.
Let's avoid speculating without facts - and there aren't enough facts here to develop a definite conclusion.
I forgot about that. We always got 3 EAS Alerts: one from the National Weather Service, one from KTRH and one from KUHF. It is possible the alert aired earlier and the phone activation. I experienced alert 3 an easy 10 minutes after the first. Then again KSEV may not have opted to air them (perfectly legal but I sure wouldn't okay that if I was running the station).
The member who posted it mentioned KSEV...
But I clicked through just now to see the video on YouTube and you're right, the person who posted it there says in the description it's KPFT.
Latest info I can find is that KGG68 is on a tower NW of Tomball, while the KSEV towers are NNE of that city.
Discussion on another forum has this as the transmitter site:
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Again, we don't know if the phone alerts also were sent to radio. We don't know if the alerts were sent at different times to radio and cellular companies (perhaps earlier as Scott suggests as a possibility). We don't know if the entity issuing the alert actually activated radio and TV, or perhaps did not know how or think it necessary. We don't know if KSEV had an equipment failure even if they had successfully done all tests.
There is no requirement that the alert be run at the same time as the cellular companies are running it.
There is too much that is unknown to think that the station was the only possible "guilty party" here.
I believe they vacated the Brown Rd site a couple of years back. I forget what the new stick is that they are on. Harris County wants to take Brown Road down and move their TxWARN site to a new tower yet to be built.Latest info I can find is that KGG68 is on a tower NW of Tomball, while the KSEV towers are NNE of that city.
Discussion on another forum has this as the transmitter site:
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
These EAS alerts come in by the dozens. With counties spread all around the large coverage area, the same alert will be received by our DASDEC units multiple times. Last week, at least a hundred of them showed up. The TAB has the EAS State plan, we monitor KUHF, KTRH, and a local NWS station, oh and the CAP IPAWS. Unfotunately, these alerts are not forwarded automatically simply because we are not required too. Plus the message is sent in English, doesnt work for Spanish stations. KLAT was to be the Spanish EAS Originator but that only was for a few years when It was a Heftel Tichnor station. KLAT had a News Traffic studio and operators for EAS. Long gone.
Gotta love the internet
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as a long time engineer in the Houston market, I would be shocked if ANY commercial station has their EAS equipment programmed to automatically relay weather watches and warnings. The EAS equipment at every station I've worked at here has been programmed to do the bare legal minimum that Fybush outlined above.
If you want weather watches and warnings via EAS, listen to KTRH (the local LP-1) or KUHF (the local LP-2.)
Admittedly, this likely made more sense when the stations were all mostly live, but it is what it is.
If you want weather watches and warnings via EAS, listen to KTRH (the local LP-1) or KUHF (the local LP-2.)
Admittedly, this likely made more sense when the stations were all mostly live, but it is what it is.
I did fairly recently hear the EAS go off on their HD2 and HD3. They were slightly delayed from the main HD1. Didn’t hear it on HD4.
I’ve also noticed EMF is good about relaying EAS on 97.1 & 103.7.