Washington - Dec 7, 2011 - The FEMA IPAWS OPEN CAP EAS message feed weekly exercise routine using RWT messages is scheduled to begin Dec. 12, 2011, according to a post on the SBE Exchange from Al Kenyon, FEMA IPAWS project manager. CAP RWT messages will be sent at 11 a.m. in each of nine local time zones extending from Guam and CNMI (UTC +10) to American Samoa (UTC -11).

There will be one CAP RWT issued per time zone on a whole-state basis during the local 11 a.m. hour each Monday. For purposes of these exercises states divided into two time zones are assigned to the time zone that includes the largest area within the state.

To connect to the IPAWS OPEN system, enter the URL https://apps.fema.gov/ into a CAP-capable EAS encoder/decoder in the appropriate menu option.