[EAS] Alerting options

[Clay Freinwald]

The real issue here is not covering the entire country, but rather much
smaller areas.

Remember ....To the FEDS EAS is a National system, a means for the President
to address
The country - WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS.

The problem is, quoting Richard Rudman for a moment ...All emergencies are
local.
Meaning that Joe Average is not as much concerned about matters is other
areas as he 
Is where he is at the moment. ...ie, within a mile or less of where he is
located.

To get messages from their sources to Joe requires is to look at the various
'flavors' 
Of EAS, and, how they are distributed from those sources to those systems
that can 
Reach Joe.

NATIONAL  -
 Here we have the PEP's, Affiliated NPR stations etc.

WEATHER-
As many on the Right-Coast will tell you right now...Weather is a huge
component
NOAA through their various WFO's and NWR systems do a pretty good job.

STATES-
Many states have State Relay Networks.   As Mike described Ill. Has a
network 
Of UHF transmitters.  Here in Washington we have about 12 VHF stations...but
Again, we have mountains that help a lot.  Other states use outside firms,
like 
EmNet etc.

LOCAL AREAS-

Here in Washington we opted to NOT use Daisy Chained radio stations in favor

Of LRN's or Local Relay Networks.  They are mainly shared use local
government 
Radio channels.   Other areas, do the same thing.  Some do nothing!

CHANGE IS COMING - 

But this is all for the OLD STUFF....Looking forward we must plan on getting
a 
Much larger payload from the sources to Joe.    The carrier for that
information 
Is called CAP and CAP requires bandwidth.

This is not unlike the conversion to DTV.    People want and deserve to
receive 
A bigger picture.   The days of NTSC were over, just as the days for SAME
will
Come to an end as well

Another factor that we much consider that that Radio and TV are not the only
parties
Involved these days.   A zillion wireless devices are now, rightfully,
involved.
And Joe expects to get a whole lot more information than can be transmitted 
Via SAME.

A distribution system already exists for delivery of this new, much more
information 
Rich, payload from the sources of the information to the systems that can
reach Joe
And those system are all IP based.    Everyone on the planning side would be
Railroaded out of town if we did not use the Internet for this purpose, at
this time.

Today the Internet can distribute more information to more places faster and

Better than all the other previous, low and slow systems ..period.

The question is now...What do we do with the wireless systems that have
served
Us so well?

This is where the next challenge resides.    SBE tried to get the Feds to
set aside
Some 700 mhz spectrum for wireless distribution systems that could be used 
At, specifically, local levels for emergency message distribution.   What
happened?

Several things - 

1 - Those that should have been supporting this ...Sat on their duff and did
nothing

2 - The Feds, not hearing any support for the idea, concluded that it must
be a bad
Idea and said no.

(Funny how that works) 

So what now ?

Time to be thinking about, perhaps, retrofitting some of these existing
wireless
Systems so they can distribute CAP?     

All this is will be a waste if we just sit back and ponder and throw out
great 
Technical solutions and do nothing on the political side to get the idea
moving forward.

My $.02

Clay Freinwald