[EAS] FEMA conformity assessment

[Harold Price]

At 06:14 PM 4/6/2011, Tom Taggart wrote:
>Where's the list of who's hot and who's not?

As I understand it, FEMA won't be publishing a list, because they 
don't want to be seen to certify, endorse, or approve any 
devices.  In fact, their FAQ for the CA 
(https://www.nimssc.org/ipawsconform/faq.asp#number12) says:

12. Is this a certification, endorsement and/or approval program?

No.

The deal is that your device is assessed: is it run through a test 
suite by a testing lab, in this case, one at SAIC and administered by 
Eastern Kentucky University for FEMA.  They worked pretty hard on 
this, and the ENDEC went through three times, once as a pilot to 
shake down the test procedures, once in an early version that 
included just the protocol and profile rules, and then again for the 
real test, which added the Implementation Guide rules.  Kudos to 
FEMA, by the way, for halting testing in the fall of 2010 to add all 
the Implementation Guide rules to the test.  It delayed the start of 
the real testing by a few months, but the test is far better for it.

Anyway, the assessment looks for compliance to the rules.  If the 
unit being tested meets all those requirements, you get a positive 
test report, and are invited to fill out Supplier's Declaration of 
Conformity (SDoC), which includes the test report, that you can then 
post to https://www.rkb.us/ - it is posted by the individual vendor - 
not FEMA.  Don't look yet, I suspect it will take several days to 
turn the crank, and many of us cranks will be in Vegas for a week.

So, will FEMA publish a list of equipment that passed a test?  The 
procedures say they won't, and they have said they won't.  You will 
soon be able to search the RKB looking for EAS/CAP equipment that has 
the SDOC and test report referenced in the unit's description.  You 
will probably also see it on each vendors web site.  And you'll 
probably see a list in Radio World, and Barry will have one I'm 
sure.  Just not directly from FEMA.

As I've said before, and Sage has filed with the FCC, I hope the FCC 
will require a completed SDOC to also be filed with a device's Part 
11 certification, so that specific CAP compliance becomes part of the 
FCC certification for CAP/EAS devices.

BTW, the Conformity Assessment isn't just for EAS devices, it is also 
for CAP origination systems.

Harold,
Reporting from the department of long answers to short questions.

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