posted on Oct, 23 2011 @ 06:52 PM
reply to post by watcher3339
Only one station is or was assigned as the controlling station. Most cities have what they call a "Clear Channel" (not the company) station an AM
band statiopn which no other station broadcast on that freq for a very long distance. This is way you can pick up some stations (AM) for a very long
distance in addition to the AM skip. The other station did have to flip switches...actually two at the same time....one up and one down which produced
the "tone" you hear when thwey test the system....then flip another switch to put it on the air.
Some recievers later were able to do it automatically by tone reciept and the overide just happened usually in mid sentence and always P'd me
off...each station had to have a reciever and it had to be working...worked for several places that use to leave them unhooked so no commercial time
was interuppted and yes they would get a huge fine for doing so but usually when the FCC was in town everyone knew and was prepared.
The new digital systems in place now are able to be controlled from one location and this test will be the first time it is activated from a central
location...not sure if the signal will go to evrywhere at once or if it will be sent to a central location in each state then activated. The idea
behind the old system was for area alerts not national or evn state wide but this new system is national so it should be intresting.
My guess is it will not work as sold to the Gov and there will be lots of problems. Not sure if SAT radio is cooperating or not...cable systems in
each area are now required but not sure for SAT radio.