[EAS] False Alert Sent

[Dave Kline]

S*%T Happens!
If you did accidentally air an unauthorized alert call your nearest FCC office and explain what happened.
Maybe even call DC.
Throw yourself on their mercy and beg forgiveness.
Follow up the calls with emails so you have a "paper" trail.
Attach all written correspondence to the station log that contains an entry explaining what happened.
If it was an accidental activation then you shouldn't get in too much hot water, if any at all.
Own up to it, don't try to hide it or cover it up.
If it was an honest mistake, then treat it like one.

The FCC's definition of intentional is that if it happened, if you caused it to happen or allowed it to happen then it was intentional.
You did not intend to send the alert but by the very fact that you took action that caused it, it is intentional.
Find another word to use other than unintentional. Like "by mistake" or "inadvertently."
"Unintentional" is not in their dictionary.

The illegal use of event codes that has caused all the fuss lately is aimed at those who would use something that sounds like an EAS message as an effect, to promote something. If you inadvertently allowed something to happen that shouldn't have, it is not the same thing. 
If someone set out with the goal of sending an unauthorized alert, then it may be a different story.

If it was just an honest mistake, then the worse thing that will probably come of it is that whoever initiated it will always and forever be kidded about it by fellow engineers.

Good Luck
Dave
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Dave Kline   UNO-TV / KVNO
University of Nebraska at Omaha
6001 Dodge St. Omaha, NE  68182  CPACS 200