Chapter 3: Using the TV’s Features
Alert Guard
Alert Guard receives digital data known as SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) combined with audio information provided by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Weather Radio (NWR).
Note: For more information about NOAA, visit www.noaa.gov.
NOAA conducts a weekly test for the all hazards broadcast system. The test is once a week on Wednesday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon for approximately 15 minutes. The yellow ADVISORY light blinks during the test. If there is ongoing severe weather or a threat of severe weather, the test is postponed until the next available
The Alert Guard system receives alerts for the U.S., U.S. territories, possessions and associated states, within your local geographic area. Your TV canÕt receive any alerts for locations outside these areas. Also, if alerts are issued for areas other than those that you set in the Location menu, Alert Guard wonÕt notify you of those alerts.
Alerts received by the Alert Guard system follow:
NOAA Natural and Weather Events- These include approximately 30 alerts, such as tornadoes, flash floods, avalanches, blizzards, forest fires, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc.
State and County Civil Emergency Alerts- The Alert Guard feature responds to current civil emergency alerts issued by all hazards NWR network. These include localized nuclear power plant emergencies, gas line breaks, train derailments, missing children alerts (AmericaÕs Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response- AMBER Alerts), etc. These
National, Regional and State Civil Emergency Alerts- These include high level state or federal emergencies, such as national attack warnings, terrorist attack alerts (not alert level or threat condition status),
Alert Guard has several different levels of alerts. A list and explanation follows:
Warning- These alone pose a significant threat to public safety and/or property, probability of occurrence and location is high, and the onset time is relatively short.
Watch- Meets classification of a warning, but either the onset time, probability of occurrence, or location is uncertain.
Advisory- This event by itself might not kill, injure, or cause property damage but may indirectly cause other things to happen that result in a hazard.
A list of the type of alert levels you can receive follows on the next page.
18 | Graphics contained within this publication are for representation only. | Chapter 3 |