[EAS] Speculation

[Harold Price]

At 11:04 PM 4/4/2011, Richard_Rudman wrote:
>Also the EAN code was, is and will be a last ditch means of 
>communication to the public.

I agree with Richard, EAN is a last ditch tool, for use on a very bad 
day.  Extended use is more likely after than during or before.  For 
those who don't know, IPAWS is managed by the National Continuity 
Programs Directorate in FEMA. 
http://www.fema.gov/about/org/ncp/index.shtm  "Continuity" says it all.

However, another good use of EAN at the start of a bad day is as a 
"pay attention" signal, make as large a segment of the population as 
possible aware that something is up, and to have them tune to a live 
news source - not necessarily for EAN to "be" the live news 
source.  That's my view, anyway.

The FCC mandated legacy EAS system, and the new CAP extensions, were 
and are primarily to support the EAN function.  Having spent the 
money to install, test, train, and maintain, however, it is nice that 
the EAS system is useful for other things, for those emergencies that 
are more local in nature, and that's what all the rest of the event 
codes are for, and why participation in those other event codes has 
been largely voluntary.  The FCC didn't want to force everyone to 
carry everything.  The backlash in the '90s to the mere thought of 
being required to carry even the EAN and the RMT lead early 
manufacturers to default the carry settings to the minimum.

Harold