[EAS] National EAS Test

[Harold Price]

"Harold--
I hate to disagree with you, but I have to tell you that there are more than
a few radio and TV stations in Nevada that will NOT receive the national
test because they cannot monitor either a PEP station or, assuming that the
NPR network is part of the test, an NPR station."

Adrienne,

I know this, and was thinking of you specifically when I typed, as 
the opening sentence in the post you referenced:

"... I think the EAN would work pretty well in areas with access to 
the PEP network".

(See, I was trying to preemptively agree with you (grin)).

I was making a point about why we needed a national test, not that 
you didn't need CAP.

We agree on that.  I know that FEMA is expanding the PEP network, but 
it will never get directly (over AM/FM broadcast band relay) to ALL stations.

The Internet will never get to all stations, or be up in every emergency.

Ku band downlinks won't work in a big rainstorm, or if the wind blows 
your antenna off the roof.

Cell phones don't work all the time - and many cell sites, so I'm 
told, only have battery backup for a short period of time.

And don't get me started on coronal mass ejections or meteor strikes.

My point is an effective emergency message delivery system can never 
rely on just one delivery technology, not even if it is the 
Internet.  More ways are better, and what is better changes from one 
area of the country to another.  The nice thing about CAP is that 
there is a standard container for the message which allows a 
multiplicity of delivery methods.  And once a broadcaster has a CAP 
device, it can get these messages in any of the variety of methods, 
and provide a standard way of getting it on the air, with whatever 
audio has managed to arrive at the station - attached digital audio, 
locally generated text to speech, or the EAS relay.

I do think the legacy system is worth keeping around, as one more 
arrow in the quiver of message dissemination possibilities.

Finally, about the national test.  I do think that running that test 
needs to be decoupled from the CAP deadline, that is, don't wait for 
CAP.  The national EAS test needs to be done, tying it to the CAP 
rollout, not just the broadcast industry's dissemination portion but 
getting the origination and tranport legs up as well, could delay the 
test another year.  You don't want to run a high profile national 
live code test while a significant number of stations haven't gotten 
used to the new gear yet.

The EAS-based system is our current delivery method, and it needs to 
stay up during the transition, and, as the FCC has said, "for the 
foreseeable future".  Do an EAS test this year, and a CAP based test next year.

Harold

At 01:57 PM 3/11/2011, Adrienne  Abbott wrote:
> >A nationwide live EAN won't be business as usual, some advance education
>will go a long way to getting the success rate for a live test close to
>100%.
>