[EAS] Activity at the FCC

[k7cr]

Tom - 

As you perhaps have heard, Washington State is not waiting for the 
Feds to make up their mind and is rolling out our own CAP based
system right now.

One of the major reasons for making this change now was the 
lousy quality of the audio contained in most EAS messages.
The originators were afraid of the microphone, there was not 
audio leveling involved, signal to noise ratios were horrid..in short, 
in many cases, the audio message sounded like 'crap' or in some 
cases could not be understood at all.  Lets face it, you make 
the message sound bad and, for radio, that's all we have.

We tried and tried for 10 years to resolve all these issues and 
we still were getting complaints. (Mainly from Radio Stations) 

Our CAP system completely solved the problem in a number of 
ways - 

1 - The message originators no longer have to deal with mic-fright
as most of them no longer 'voice' a message (or test) 

2- We no longer expect to have quality degradation via a number
of relays

3- Message originators type their message into a computer and 
send it.

4 - That text-message is distributed, via CAP, to the region the 
originator wishes it to go - Their City, County, adjacent counties
or the whole state.

5- At the station level, that text message is then READ by the 
text reader within the CAP capable EAS Decoder.   Out comes
crystal clear audio and everyone is happy.

6- Stations can also then 'read' that message on their studio 
displays (the EAS/CAP box is networked at the station) over and 
over...or, if desired, they can print it, as they would any other 
text message.  

As for other " vastly  more reliable, methods of delivering the message(s)
to *radio* stations" - What would you propose? and (most important) 
how would you fund it?.

Again I need to ask - What portions of EAS are you talking about?
National, State, Local or Weather?

As for the approach of simply upgrading SAME...I fail to see how 
SAME could be upgraded to do what CAP will and is doing.

Other final point - 

We need to understand that Radio is not the only public warning 
system out there.  Frankly Radio has been doing a very poor job
with public warnings in that many station choose to ignore their 
moral obligation to forward the messages.

The who concept of IPAWS is to 'Integrate' our public warning 
system.  Those that are sources of public warning messages (the
person that is entering the information into their computer, need a 
system that will reach not only radio, but TV, Cable, Cell Phones, 
Highway Signs, etc etc.   Radio is not the only means of alerting
 people any more. CAP is the means by which one message 
can reach all these systems.  This is something that SAME 
could never do.

Hope this helps...

Thanks for your interest in EAS.

Clay Freinwald