The Emergency Alert Radio System (EARS) is used to alert amateurs monitoring the 145.110 Repeater that the District 3 ARES Net is being activated.
It consists of an alert tone, followed by a voice announcement from the operator activating the system.
The alert also transmits a sub-audio tone of 71.9 Hz. That means you can set a radio to CTCSS or Tone Squelch mode using that tone. You then can leave it in the background without being disturbed by normal repeater traffic, much like you use a weather radio with SAME enabled.
You might consider setting up a memory in your radio on 145.110 CTCSS 71.9 Hz so you can switch easily over to the standard repeater tone for the 145.11 of 67.0Hz
This might also be a good use for a spare radio such as an HT that is no longer being used.
Background: In the 1990’s Weather Radios were modified to monitor the 145.110 Repeater and were activated by a series of tones. This was useful as at that time many amateur radios did not have any tone capability, and many that did were transmit only.
However the technology of weather radios changed over time and the original ones wore out, new ones could not be found to replace them. Technology changes also meant that most if not all amateur radios now have CTCSS/Tone Squelch capabilities.
Therefore the current system of transmitting a 71.9Hz tone over the repeater was adopted as a replacement.