[EAS] FEMA conformity assessment

[Harold Price]

At 09:18 PM 4/6/2011, Adrienne  Abbott wrote:
So they're telling us in April that the list that they've been saying all
along was going to be issued in March never existed?

Adrienne,

It is a semantics issue only, there is a list, it is just a virtual 
list.  FEMA did what they said they would do, come up with a way to 
show that devices are conformant.  Test reports started to become 
available only a few days late, not bad given the complexity of the 
task, and the addition of a significant amount of new test 
cases.  Adding those tests was good thing.

No one seriously expects individual stations to dig up the test 
reports.  Few EAS users have ever seen the Part 11 certification 
documents, even though they are present, but buried deeply, on the 
FCC web site.  A simple list of devices that went through the CA 
process will be available, just not a list of "FEMA approved 
devices", and not from FEMA.  FEMA doesn't have the force of law to 
approve devices, making it hard to have a list.  They came up with a 
good way of accomplishing what was needed, without going down a path 
they could not go.  The FCC mandates with force of law, and does 
publish lists.  FEMA does not - but they did the next best thing.  I 
call FEMA out from time to time, especially in the confusion of 2007, 
but this one they got right.

"The list" was bandied about as a shorthand, I'm sure, because it is 
easier to describe than the actual process.  I could yet be proved 
wrong, and their might be a list published by FEMA of devices that 
went through the process so far, but I think they're going to go with 
the RKB process, arcane though it may be.

Barry and Richard and Clay can fill out the "passed assessment" 
column in their equipment chart after NAB, and that's the list.  And 
look for the FCC's next NPRM, it might have a procedure to have a 
list.  I hope.

See you in Vegas.
Harold