Washington - Oct 25, 2011 - The Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS) is making sure its feed is ready for the Nov. 9, 2011, national EAS test. Most public radio stations take feeds from the PRSS, and the EAN on Nov. 9, will be distributed through the system as well as through the Primary Entry Point (PEP) station network.

Every day from now until Nov. 8, 2011, the PRSS will send a required weekly test (RWT). This is to allow stations to verify their receivers are working properly and all levels are set. The tests will be sent once a day at approximately 1:15 p.m. ET.

The PRSS Network Operations Center (NOC) has created a subscription for the RWT feed in the ContentDepot portal called "EAS Tests," which runs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET each day starting Oct. 25. This subscription expires on Nov. 8. Stations wishing to manually tune to these feeds may do so by referring to the program stream information listed at the end of each day's Operations Schedule (OPSKED), which can be found in the Exchange section of the Content Depot portal. Additional technical information on the EAS test may be found on the PubTech Listserv.

On the day of the national test, the PRSS will provide a feed of the exercise. A subscription has been created in the portal for this event called "EAS Test." Again, stations wishing to manually tune to these feeds may do so by referring to the program stream information listed at the end of each day's OPSKED. This special Primary Entry Point (PEP) feed is intended only to support station efforts during the Nov. 9 test, and the subscription is slated to expire immediately following the national exercise. A longer-term solution for EAS testing over the PRSS is in development and will be shared with the system in the coming months.

Contact the PRSS help desk at prsshelp@npr.org for more information.