Three years have now passed since the last coast-to-coast test of the Emergency Alert System. FEMA and the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau are gearing up to run it again, with every required broadcaster across the country expected to take part.
The test is scheduled for November 17 at 2:20p ET. If conditions require rescheduling, the backup date is December 3.
This will be the first nationwide EAS test since October 4, 2023. It’s also a narrower test than 2023’s: that one paired the EAS test with a simultaneous Wireless Emergency Alerts test to cell phones, while this notice covers only the EAS.
All EAS Participants, including Low Power FM stations, Class D noncommercial educational FM stations, and stations operating under a grant of Special Temporary Authority, are required to register and file in the FCC’s EAS Test Reporting System. Exceptions include LPTV translator stations, FM booster and translator stations, international broadcast stations, and satellite or repeater stations that entirely rebroadcast a hub station’s programming, so long as the hub station itself files.
Filing deadlines are staggered. ETRS Form One for calendar year 2026 is due by October 30; Form Two, covering day-of-test data, is due within 48 hours of the test, by 2:20p ET on November 19; and Form Three, providing detailed post-test data, is due within 45 days of the test, by January 4, 2027. Each deadline shifts two weeks later if the test is postponed to the backup date.
The Bureau is encouraging EAS Participants to prepare in advance by keeping a copy of the EAS Operating Handbook at duty positions, reviewing state EAS monitoring assignments, updating equipment software and firmware, and synchronizing EAS equipment clocks to National Institute of Standards and Technology time where automatic synchronization isn’t available.
