A survey of Massachusetts licensed radio and television broadcasters following the September 16 FEMA Regional EAS test suggests that the majority of broadcast stations in the Commonwealth received and forwarded the “NPT” code test without incident.
The test, the second such regional EAS test in 2015, was conducted through FEMA in anticipation of a second national EAS test sometime in 2016. Of the 48 survey participants representing 82 sets of call letters, nearly 98% received the test on-time, while 86% automatically relayed the test. The MBA was in contact with a handful of stations that had trouble with the test and it was generally determined that settings within each of the EAS decoders were to blame and the problem will be resolved for future tests.
Many stations noted the exceptional audio quality of the test in comparison to the National EAS test which took place in 2011. The MBA will forward survey information (with call letters redacted) to FEMA. The FCC was not involved in this test and reporting of test results, apart from the MBA survey, is not necessary. If you would like to answer the survey, you may do so here.
For resources to help program your EAS equipment to handle future NPT tests, you can find them on the EAS page of MassBroadcasters.org.
