Emergency Broadcast: Difference between revisions
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The Emergency Broadcast is a means of public warning and public annoyance alike. Hearing an '''Emergency Broadcast''' warning of actual danger may lead to [[Oh Crap]], [[Mass "Oh Crap"]], the need for [[Bring My Brown Pants|one's brown pants to be brought]] - in that way it may be the ultimate [[Brown Note]]. On the other hand, a test or a warning of something that doesn't affect you (e.g. a missing child warning, a flood when you're on high ground, a tsunami when you're 100 miles inland) may be a [[Berserk Button]] and lead to frustration with [[Crying Wolf]]. Another frequent frustration is when an actual alert has such horrible sound quality you can't understand what's being said. In
In many countries, [[Atomic Hate]] was the primary reason for the system's creation, and it eventually (and thankfully) ended up never being used for that purpose and being used for many others.
Needless to say, [[Truth in Television]].
▲== Emergency Broadcast systems by country ==
'''Australia:''' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM4gPCLzLO8 The Standard Emergency Warning Signal], used primarily in Queensland to warn of cyclones, but now possibly being expanded for bushfires and terror threats in the rest of the country. Possibly, along with Japan's EWS and Alberta's EPWS, one of the few Emergency Broadcast systems to originally be developed specifically for a weather/geological hazard rather than [[Atomic Hate]].
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All sirens are tested on one Saturday in the year instead of the noon test.
'''[[Canada]]:''' [https://www.alertready.ca/ Alert Ready] is a national alert system with the capability to override radio broadcasts and use "Wireless Public Alerting" to push alert messages to 4G LTE cellphones. Unlike the similar system in the USA, Canadians cannot opt out of WPA messages (
Only one province, Alberta, has a provincial emergency warning system. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yieKSxczXXY The Alberta Emergency Public Warning System] was planned after an F5 tornado tore through Edmonton, but was only picked up by all broadcasters after a F3 tornado destroyed a campground at Pine Lake. The EPWS serves to advise the public of imminent threats such as severe summer weather (tornadoes, thunderstorms, and floods) and civil emergencies, and also broadcasts
'''Czech Republic:''' Alarm sirens are tested the first Wednesday each month, at noon. They are accompanied by voice messages announcing that it's just a test, but especially if you are in a building the only thing you hear is the sirens' wailing.
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Also, the Japanese test signal is not entirely standardized across broadcasting stations (even stations within a given city like will differ; examples abound on [[YouTube]]) except for the emergency chime, a video/audio description of when a real broadcast would be activated, an emergency tone, and a notification in Japanese that the audible "piro-piro-piro" tone (the data burst, not the bells mentioned above) is only audible on analog TVs, with an additional device required after the digital transition due to it being a data signal to digital TVs.
'''México:''' The [[wikipedia:Mexican Seismic Alert System|Mexican Seismic Alert System]] ([[wikipedia:es:Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano|es:Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano]], SASMEX) blares warnings of a distant earthquake (¡Alerta Sísmica!) up to a minute before the shock wave hits. There are loudspeakers and sirens in Mexico City and the city of Oaxaca, there are radio alerts in a similar format to the US Weatheradio in several cities, there are interruptions of conventional broadcast media.
'''Russia:''' An old system of power-independent wire radio ("radiotochka") still exists for this exact purpose, for performing emergency broadcasts even during blackouts.
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A national EAS test was performed on November 11, 2011. It showed that nationally, the system needed a little work: Some cable providers switched to their EAS feed station (usually QVC or another [[Home Shopping]] channel) without showing the test, others didn't state that a test was happening, and Direct TV viewers were hearing [[Lady Gaga]] instead of the test message.
[[File:2018 Hawaii missile alert.jpg|thumb|An incorrect EAS message sent to Hawaiian cell phones on January 13, 2018.]]
In 2018 a EAS alert for a missile strike was disseminated in Hawaii as the result of an error. Given recent nuclear saber rattling from [[North Korea]], it seemed believable.
{{examples|Emergency Broadcasts can be found in the following works:}}
== Comic Books ==
* An early issue of ''Epic Illustrated'' has a one-page strip in which a couch potato is lazing in front of his TV set with a beer. A voice from the TV announces a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The guy swigs a beer as the warning tone sounds, then starts to look uncomfortable and sweat, before finally writhing in agony and melting into a skeleton. In the final panel we see that the world outside has been incinerated. Meanwhile the voice on TV blithely announces "this was only a test."
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[[Category:Apocalyptic Index]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Alerts, Alarms and Warnings]]
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