[EAS] Ira's Comments (GMC, CAP and FCC-FEMA requirements)

[ed.czarnecki at monroe-electronics.com]

OK, let's go into some specific background to clarify how the GMC alert is - and is not - going to be handled.  The horse is way, way out of the gate on this issue, and quite a bit down the road.

Executive Order 13407 (issued by the President in June 2006) specifies that the DHS/FEMA shall "establish or adopt, as appropriate, common alerting and warning protocols, standards, terminology, and operating procedures for the public alert and warning system to enable interoperability and the secure delivery of coordinated messages to the American people through as many communication pathways as practicable, taking account of Federal Communications Commission rules as provided by law..."

FEMA did EXACTLY that when they adopted (1) the CAP standard, (2) the IPAWS CAP profile, and possibly most importantly (3) the ECIG EAS-CAP Implementation Guide.  See www.eas-cap.org for the posted FEMA letters of concurrence.

The Implementation Guide specifies in detail how the GMC function is to be constructed and handled.  Not by adding new event or ORG codes, but via a CAP-specific function, as indicated by the FCC's Second Report and Order.  The Second R&O did specify this was to be a CAP-related function.  To quote FCC 07-109 at II.14 "we will enable state governors (or their designees) to 
deliver CAP-formatted EAS messages to EAS Participants on both existing and Next Generation EAS.  EAS Participants must then issue message-based alerts based on the information received."

Moreover, the IPAWS Conformance Assessment Process (as briefed by Mark Lucero at an open industry meeting some months ago) is testing the GMC function - as specified in the Implementation Guide - in each CAP vendor's product.

Hopefully background this can help move the dialog from speculation to the actual parameters the vendors are currently required to develop against. GMC is CAP. 

Edward Czarnecki, Ph.D.
Senior Director - Strategy, Development and Regulatory Affairs
Monroe Electronics, Inc. / Digital Alert Systems
ed.czarnecki at monroe-electronics.com

www.monroe-electronics.com
www.digitalalertsystems.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Lowell Kiesow [mailto:lkiesow at kplu.org]

How about making GMC an originator code instead of an event code?At 06:52 AM 4/5/2011, you wrote:>There is another difference with EAN - it has no time limit.>>There are other problems with "overloading" the EAN with other>functions, such as the 31 location code problem, that tend to make>all EANs national events.>>Adding a GMC event code will cause legacy devices to say "The Civil>Authorities has issued a Governors Must Carry for all of Pennsylvania".>>Harold>>At 09:43 PM 4/4/2011, Eric Adler wrote:> >I, too, had thought about this but, from what I understand, GMC> >can't become EAN as the presidential message must override _all_> >messages, including GMC.> >Eric Lowell Kiesow, Chief Engineer KPLU 88.5, KVIX 89.3, KPLI 90.1 www.kplu.org www.jazz24.org _______________________________________________This is the EAS Forum Discussion ListPlease invite your friends to join our Forum!http://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/easAnd, remember the main page: http://eas.radiolists.net