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Accidental EAS activation?

R

rricci

I was returning to my home in Mountain View from the East Palo Alto Ikea listening to 103.1, a K-Love station, when at 6:39 P.M., the music suddenly stopped, and the Emergency Alert System tone came on. That got my attention as that was the 1st time I heard it activated when it wasn't raining or for the weekly test. A guy came on, started speaking and then the ending broken tone came on. When the guy came on, I must have hit a bad spot because I got some static so I couldn't understand what was said. It was so short that I doubt that more than 2 words were spoken (the gap between the opening tone and the closing one couldn't have been more 5-7 seconds). After the ending tomes, the song I was listening to came back on. Does anyone have any idea what happened here? Was this an accidental activation?

I checked radio-locator.com and within 100 miles of Mountain View there are 2 K-Love stations on 103.1, one in Santa Cruz K276BR(KLVS) and one in Vacaville K276EK (KLVB). I seriously think I was listening to the Santa Cruz station, but I have no clue as K-Love Station don't identify their individual call signs. What are the rules on station identification?
 
My guess is that it was a relay of a weekly test. EMF typically gets a main studio waiver for their stations and likely has no operator on duty at the primary station for that translator. The easiest way to satisfy the rules in a situation like that is to just interrupt programming and forward anything that comes through the EAS decoder.

Dave B.
 
Those 'Weekly tests' are pretty random. Watching the Giants home opener on Comcast Sports Net, there was a quick interruption during an at-bat. Fortunately, it was the 10-second version, with no 'spiel', and it was over in time for the next pitch.
 
Here in San Diego there is a non commercial jazz station (88.3 FM) that has live jocks 24/7 and I have heard the EAS tone right in the middle of a jazz piece for 10 seconds and then the song comes back on again
 
"With all the sabre rattiling from North Korea, I say it's time to bring back CONELRAD"

Except that with the noise floor the way it is on AM nowadays, you think anybody could hear it. Especially the 1240 frequency :)
 
Hmm...if a CONELRAD test happens at night on AM you could probably hear loads of...Mexico and Cuba! Except on 640 and 1240...

-crainbebo
 
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