Emergency alert to be tested on US cellphones, TV and radio on Wednesday

You can't even opt out anymore.

Recent models of mobile phones may include a setting to opt-out of tests and alerts. None of those settings will affect the 2023 national test. If your mobile phone is on and receiving service from a participating wireless provider, you should receive the national test.

At least I'll be warned..

Side note, why is alt.home.repair included in the post

On 9/11, 2001, I wasn't listening to radio or watching TV. I found out the big event late in the evening.

This time when we get nuked we will know right away through our cellphones.

Too late to seek shelter ... *LOL* You and your phone will be already evaporated.

Alerts can also take place as hostilities begin - in such a case you would have 10 - 30 minutes or so get to a basement or other shelter somewhere and hope it is not in the target area.

It's not 1962. Most nuclear weapons are fairly low powered compared to the monsters of the first "H-bomb era". The US' largest deployed weapon was a city destroying 25 MTon. Removed from service in the 70's.

Most nuclear weapons today are sub Mton and for that matter are programmable yield. (eg: 5 to 150 kT W80). Though the Russians tend to go a little higher yield (0.5 .. 5MT).

So fewer people will be vaporized. A lot will die from radiation poisoning however. That takes longer. And the cell phone network will likely not work.

Ironically, the wireline phone network was designed to survive nuclear war - and you can see this today in US cities where there are still phone switching centres that are entirely without windows.

So wherever there are no direct hits, plain old telephones will still work.

FWIW, when the UK did a similar test earlier this year, my phone (with all alerts disabled) remained silent, also one MNO was found somewhat poorly performing in delivering alerts.

I'd hope it _is_ in the target area. I'd much rather flash-fry than die of radiation, starvation, etc.

Life is survival. There is no death unless you have lived.

Given the smaller nukes these days, you'll almost certainly be in survival mode.

Then all we need are two bullets. One for my husband and one for me.

I spend JHS and HS in Indianapolis, and it seemed the only big target there was the US Army Finance Center, which is the 2nd largest government building, second only to the Pentagon. I don't know if my own house was in range if that was the target and the missile was accurate.

I used to drive by every morning and evening in the summer on my way to my job as a Fuller Brush Man. One time I was returning home at exactly

I feel much better now.

No cell phone! The agony!

Even the wired exchanges were built without windows. Back in 1968, I wanted to get into one, in order to enliven the phone jack in my room.

I wanted to go up on the telephone pole in the alley behind where I lived but needed a ladder for the first 7 feet, so I went to the exchange, and fortunately i arrived as someone else was entering. I stood behind him as he punched a few numbers into the keypad. I couldn't see them all so I thought I should wait for the next guy and watch better, but the though of being arrested for trespassing stopped me.

Andy Burns snipped-for-privacy@andyburns.uk wrote

I had forgotten to turn my phone off and mine showed the screen and buzzed at the equivalent of 2:18 (not 2:20) Eastern Time.

I hit the reboot button without tapping the OK on the pop-up screen. (I don't know if it phones home when you hit OK - does it?).

When it booted back up a minute or two later - it did it again - so I turned the phone off until the equivalent of 2:30 Eastern Time.

When I booted - it did it again, so... a. They're testing "something" b. They have a pop-up "OK" button for some reason c. What does the "OK" button actually do?

Anyone know?

Whatever it does is likely related directly to their purpose in terms of how they plan on collecting success data?

Anyone know more than I do about what happens when you hit the OK button? Anyone know how long you have to be off grid for them to forget about you?

It dismisses the dialog.

My phone was on, but in airplane mode. Nothing. Somebody said the signal would override airplane mode. Nope.

Back in elementary school we were taught to hide under out desks when the teacher yelled DROP!

I thought that today's technology would work better than that. Nope.

I live near the largest naval station in the US. I fully expect that to be a prime target of any nuclear attack.

The Real Bev snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

I hadn't thought about airplane mode. Thanks for that better idea. That way I can still interact with the phone on my PC monitor since I'm always working on the phone at a size of 2 feet by 1 foot.

I wonder what happens when you turn off the airplane mode though.

At the equivalent of 3:30 Eastern Time I turned the phone back on. It has only been a few minutes but I haven't seen the alert again yet.

In the early sixties we had three things that you speak of.

1. We had air raid sirens in every town that were tested seemingly monthly.
2. We had the TV tell us "this is just a test" about that frequently.
3. We would go outside for a fire alarm, but into the hallway for an air raid - all the kids lining the walls sitting in a cross-legged position with their hands over their heads.

We didn't know what a Russian was - but we knew they wanted to bury us.

Thank God Putin isn't saying they'll bury us like Nikita did back then.

badgolferman snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

Silicon Valley is as flat as a pancake - surrounded by ~3K' mountains.

Depending on the warhead(s), the initial light won't penetrate the Santa Cruz mountains though (depending on the direction you're facing at the moment(s) of the blast of course) - but they may focus the bouncebacks...

The secondary heat and shock waves will likely have some repercussions as they can probably somewhat curve around 3K' mountains I would think...

The tertiary radioactive dust will be hard to avoid taking internally though... as everything will have to be filtered for months (maybe years).

Thank God for these emergency alerts to protect me from all that... but still... I suspect they are testing each and every phone's bounceback.

But how?

There is probably some kind of indication to the carrier that they must report back to the FCC that says exactly which phones got the messages.

Which all happened at 2:18pm ET (2:20pm was a typo in some news stories). And airplane mode is discussed below (for victims of domestic abuse).

"Why was the test two minutes early? Information from the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had said "The tests are scheduled for Oct. 4,

A release from the Federal Communications Commission dated Aug. 3 noted that the test would occur at 2:18 pm EDT, which was within the timing given by FEMA."

Only cell phones powered on received the message. That is likely to help someone living in an unsafe situation who has a hidden phone. Many domestic violence organizations have issued warnings locally and nationally leading up to the test."

Quellen snipped-for-privacy@gmx.com wrote

Ah. Thanks. Wi-Fi would be even better than airplane mode, and certainly better than turning off the phone altogether.

What doesn't work on Wi-Fi anyway when you have Wi-Fi calling set to on? Everything works, right?

I never understood MMS though - so maybe it won't work on Wi-Fi only. Does it?

I also had specific alerts turned on but 'test alerts' turned off. I wonder if those are the default settings. I don't remember making any changes to those.

I remember knowing about Russians and bombs in the 50s, but I don't remember being afraid. We knew about fire, but we weren't afraid of that either. I guess kids aren't big on theory...

He was also going to sell us the rope we'd use to hang ourselves. Damn clever line, but we started buying rope from China...