1. LP station upgrades are finally available - LP stations are now able to Broadcast CAE (AMBER) EAS activations
2. The State Police AMBER website is now active - instant info is available
3. Stations should insure that they have upgraded their EAS equipment

AMBER ALERTS

1. The AMBER alert EAS activation request MUST be routed by the appropriate law enforcement agencies to the Virginia State Police (VSP). VSP will evaluate the request using the attached criteria and flowchart from the state AMBER plan.

2. VSP will initiate any EAS activation. Initially, such activations will be made with a statewide location code (051000) and will be broadcast statewide by NOAA weather radio to the LP stations (WQPO and WMRA) for rebroadcast. As resources permit, a more targeted system will be developed.

3. Receipt of an AMBER alert via EAS is a cue to individual stations to GO TO THE STATE AMBER website for supplemental information. Local agencies may, as always, issue press information to broadcast outlets, and are encouraged to do so.

Stations should closely monitor the Virginia AMBER website for the duration of the event, There will be NO EAS activations for additional information or cancellations. The Virginia AMBER website will include photos when available for television station use.

4. Stations are encouraged to broadcast once the EAS activation (LP stations will broadcast these alerts). Additional information may be broadcast by stations just as they would any late-breaking news story. Participation in AMBER is completely voluntary; stations operating unattended will likely be able to only broadcast the original EAS activation (automatic relay).

The purpose of the EAS activation is to notify stations that there is such an event occurring in a rapid manner. Stations are not expected to transcribe or record the original AMBER message from the EAS broadcast.

5. Additional announcements may be made by the stations as they deem appropriate. The suggested schedule, as contained in the state AMBER plan, is this:

• At least every 15 minutes for the first two hours
• Every 30 minutes for the next three hours.
• After five hours, hourly updates for the next 7 hours or as appropriate

6. Supplemental information via facsimile may be targeted only at the region of concern, even though the EAS alert will be distributed statewide. Therefore, if you do not receive any information via fax, or cannot find any information on the Virginia AMBER website you may in fact not have anything to broadcast. Disregard the event.

7. Stations monitoring the EAS activation may delete the event if it does not seem applicable. An abduction in Tidewater is of no concern to this area until such time as law enforcement may believe the victim has been transported to this area. LP stations will rebroadcast ALL AMBER EAS alerts using the CAE code.

8. Stations are reminded that EAS activations contrary to the State and Local Area plans may be considered "false or deceptive EAS transmissions" as per 47 CFR 11.45. ALL AMBER ACTIVATIONS MUST ORIGINATE WITH THE VIRGINIA STATE POLICE.

9. Further information is available on the web.

Local EAS Plan       svplan.pdf
State EAS Plan       vaplan.pdf
State AMBER website       www.vaamberalert.com current alert info
State AMBER plan       stateamber.pdf
Missing Children       http://www.missingkids.com/html/amberplan.html

Participating Stations are encouraged to place the AMBER logo on their station website with a link to the Virginia AMBER website. This will make it easy for your announcers to quickly obtain AMBER information and will identify your station to the public as an AMBER station. If a photograph is available you can point your listeners to this link.

• Download the AMBER logo here.
• You may wish to link this logo to www.vaamberalert.com

New FCC Rules and the Local Area

From this point on, RMT's originated by our LP stations will be sent with a 90 minute expiration time. The new rules permit stations to rebroadcast the RMT up to 60 minutes after reciept. The extra time encoded in the expiration allows for clock differences. This should be of great benefit to television stations who may wish to postpone the alert until the next station break. Of course, if your equipment is set up to autoforward within 15 minutes, it still will do so.

This change will allow some tests to be moved to the xx:19 time as opposed to the traditional xx:49 time slot.