This is being covered on local San Francisco Bay Area media, but if
network engineers aren't paying attention to the local news. Here is an
opportunity for tech folks in the Oakland area to participate in the
Earthquake Early Warning Test.
TEST INFORMATION
Date: Wednesday, March 27th, 2019
Time: 11:00AM
Message: “TEST of the CA Earthquake Warning System. No action required.
THIS IS A TEST.”
Location: Downtown Oakland (Lakeside commercial neighborhood) with
bleedover into adjacent areas depending on cell tower RF propagation.
Part of this year's test is measuring how quickly earthquake warning
alerts are propagated through different emergency alert channels. The
future goal is transmitting earthquake alerts in less than 3 seconds.
That is unlikely with current systems. Instead the test will help measure
current alert system propagation delays.
If you have access to accurate clocks, and a cell phone, and are in the
Oakland area on Wednesday.
https://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/earthquake-tsunami-volcano-programs/california-earthquake-early-warning-program
Please participate in a citizen science test to see how fast these alerts
can be transmitted to cell phones. For this test to be effective, you need
to take the following steps:
1) Before the test starts, using either your cell phone or your desktop
computer go to www.time.is.
2) Starting a few minutes in advance of the scheduled alert time (11:00AM
Pacific), keep a close watch on your cell phone and www.time.is note the
exact time--to the nearest second, if you can--at which the alert first
arrives on your phone. This alert will have the heading "Emergency Alert",
and this message: “TEST of the CA Earthquake Warning System. No action
required. THIS IS A TEST.”
3) Please take this survey, armed with the time (to the second) you
received the alert. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WEATESTSHAKEALERT
Yeah, I know. Some folks on this list likely have nano-second
synchronized clocks and will debate whether the propagation delay is
taking into account the correct einstein relativity offset of the earth's
surface in the oakland bay area (I just made that techno-babble up).
Just do the reasonable thing, and help out the scientists :-)
