[BC] EAS question (Thinking oneself into a logical corner.)

[Ed Czarnecki]

Q:  Would a "real" EAN contain an "all FIPS codes" signal 

A: No, not at present.  Because the EAS protocol can only support a number
of FIPS codes per message, the convention is to use the Wash DC FIPS code as
a workaround.  There is no agreed-upon national FIPS code.  The idea of
using 000000 for a national FIPS has been proposed, but the FCC has not
addressed this proposal yet.  The IPAWS CAP profile (the IPAWS
implementation of CAP) likewise proposes that "A SAME value of "000000"
refers to ALL United States territory or territories".  However, again it
appears that the FCC has not formally adopted that convention yet.   

Q:  or, do we actually need to have Washington, DC in the list of areas for
which we monitor? 

A:  The particular answer may depend on your EAS equipment.  For the DASDEC
and R189 OneNet, just for example, the DC FIPS is preconfigured in the list
for EAN monitoring -- that is, only for EAN, not in the general table of
FIPS.  So yes, you need to have DC in your FIPS table, but at least in the
DASDEC, it is configured such that EAN monitoring for the DC FIPS is
separate from "generic" EAS monitoring. 

As for CAP, please bear in mind that it's unlikely that an EAN (with support
for streaming audio of unlimited duration) is probably not coming around for
a while - maybe 18-24 months at least.  A lot of standardization work needs
to be done on that (including making sure whatever streaming format selected
by the government can be readily supported by all the CAP EAS gear that is
already in the field).

-----Original Message-----

 From: Keith Hammond

Until now, we've always had our local EAS equipment set with "Washington,
DC" listed in the local area of operation as there was practically no chance
of an alert actually getting to us (in Alabama) with such an FIPS coding
unless it was designed to go nationwide. This was done so that there was no
chance of an EAN (originated in Washington) to go un-passed within the
system.  

Well... Now, we have CAP and, this morning, we received both the eastern
time zone as well as the central time zone test.

My question, in a nutshell is: Would a "real" EAN contain an "all FIPS
codes" signal or, do we actually need to have Washington, DC in the list of
areas for which we monitor? The more I think about it, the more my head
hurts because I am coming up with valid arguments for both lines of thinking
from both directions.

Thanks in advance for input into this.

Keith Hammond
MonsterFM.com / Broadcast Technical Services LPFMRadio.com
830 Hillsdale Road
Jasper, Alabama 35504