Instantaneously, pagers, cell phones and computers across the state lit up with a test of Utah's Amber Alert, part of the nationwide child-abduction alert system.

Minutes later, banners scrolled across TVs and electronic highway signs flashed text.

"From Logan to St. George, I got the word the message had been received," said Dale Zabriskie, president of the Utah Broadcasters Association.

Overall, the test - conducted on Missing Children's Day - was successful, highlighting only minor glitches in a state system law enforcement officials say is among the best in the country.

"By all accounts, it went well," said Paul Murphy, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office.

A couple of problems:

* AT&T and Cingular cell phone users never received the alert, perhaps because the two companies merged and changed a code that interfered with reception, Murphy said.

* Comcast digital cable customers saw a full-screen alert that displayed little information.

"It's a work in progress," Zabriskie acknowledged.

Elaine Runyan-Simmons - whose 3-year-old daughter, Rachael, was kidnapped from a Sunset park and murdered in 1982 - said the state's child-abduction alert system is an effective tool.

"It has been 23 years since we lost Rachael and we've come a long way since then with the technology."

Back then, Runyan-Simmons photocopied fliers with her daughter's picture and taped them in store windows and on telephone poles. A month later, the girl's body was found in Weber Canyon. Her killer remains at large.

Ed McConkie, chief of the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, said time is critical in abduction cases.

Utah issued its first Amber Alert on June 5, 2002, after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City. Since that time, 10 more Amber Alerts have been issued in Utah. Most of the abductors were acquaintances or family members of the victim. In 10 of the 11 cases, the victim was safely recovered, for a 91 percent success rate.

lrosetta@sltrib.com