[EAS] Ira's Comments

[Tom Taggart]

As I understand the approach with the add-on boxes, they
will convert the alerts to audio & FSK, which the existing
EAS decoder will understand as just another source.

Now, the existing decoder will already be working and have
all the present EAS requirements in place.  That is, there
will be audio feeding it from, for example, NWS and the
state relay; and it will already be set up to interrupt the
program line for alerts.  The filters (e.g., relay warnings,
but not watches, etc.)--will also be stored.  So the only
configuration needed is to plug in the add-on box as an
audio source and get it talking to the internet to be able
to go fetch CAP alerts. 

Not that it will be any easier than the all-in-one CAP ready
decoders, especially in terms of getting it to talk to the
internet and any network, etc.  But the existing old EAS box
will continue to relay alerts from existing non-cap sources
& can be used to send RWT's; while replacing the complete
system with a new box will require a lot more in the way of
configuration to even get it working like the old EAS
decoder. 

So what is likely to happen with the add-on box is that it
will be in the rack when the station is inspected, but it
may or may not be configured correctly to go fetch the CAP
alerts from the server(s).

On the other hand, that's the same problem with the all-in
one boxes--they may be set up to relay EAN's and RMT's but
simply dump to memory everything else.