臘‍♀️why do we have a false tornado siren going off in Lancaster Tx? Smh Thanks Lancaster for waking us all up at 2:30 am.
In that instance, a hacker exploited a "radio issue" to set off the sirens in the middle of the night. Dallas responded by adding encryption to the radio signal that controlled the city's sirens, to make it harder for unauthorised radio users from again hijacking the control signal.
Super-serious false alarms from electronic warning systems happen more often than you might like, as in the case of a fake missile alert in Hawaii in January 2018.
Good point. The words "amateur radio enthusiast" made me think of ham radio, and given that ham operators have to pass the electromagnetic equivalent of a bus-driver's test, and hold the electromagnetic equivalent of a bus-driver's public conveyance licence, they tend to hold themselves to high standards and make positive community contributions – in the same way that owners of classic sports cars generally don't go in for TWOCcing and cutting other drivers up for sport (and they enjoy surprisingly low insurance premiums, even though some of them are, ahem, spirited drivers who aren't averse to getting the hammer down).
So I changed it to say simply, "unauthorised radio users".
Most populated areas of the US also are able to receive location-specific NOAA Weather Radio Alerts, including tornado warnings. These alerts are triggered moments before mobile phone alerts and sirens. So far, these radios have never been hacked… probably because it's analog.
Just an aside from someone that has lived their entire life in Texas tornado alley — often a block or two from tornado warning sirens. These systems are generally just theatrics. You can hear them loud and clear during daylight testing. You can hear the one closest to you and echos of 10 more in the distance. I am very sure that these hacked systems woke people up out of their sleep. I have, however, never in my life actually heard one going off in a storm. The sound of the storm (and possibly the lake of water falling from the sky) dampen the sirens such that you are unlikely to ever hear them. You are much better off with a weather radio.