The FCC started a website for all emergency alert system participants...

is available now and the others to be accessible starting the day of the exercise, said a commission public notice Wednesday. One form “will ask each EAS Participant to submit detailed information regarding its receipt and propagation, if applicable, of the alert code, including an explanation of any complications in receiving or propagating the code,” the notice said. “Such details will include what time (including time zone) the code was received, the time of retransmission of the code, and the source from which the code was received.” If EAS participants don’t complete the forms online, they must submit them on paper, and all documents are due Dec. 27, the notice said (http://xrl.us/bmg43o). All “broadcasters, cable operators, satellite radio and television service providers and wireline video service providers” and DBS companies must take part, the agency said. It also released a handbook about the test, with technical and other instructions for those taking part (http://xrl.us/bmg46i). “A copy of the Handbook must be located at normal duty positions or EAS equipment locations when an operator is required to be on duty and be immediately available to staff responsible for administering the Nationwide EAS Test,” the commission said. The handbook and the test reporting website had been expected to have been finished last week (CD Oct 13 p9). The agency noted it’s put public service announcements in English and Spanish online: “We encourage EAS Participants to air announcements to educate consumers” about the exercise.