[EAS] This just in: NCTA has asked FEMA to "postpone" the national test

[Steven C Johnson]

As a member of the cable industry, I would like to respond.  The cable industry has stepped up, purchased upgrades, and is preparing for the test (and CAP too).  We have expended considerable resources to be in compliance of Part 11 rules in the vast majority of locations.  

The argument is not about money but about the text message supported in the EAS protocol.  The message coming out of the decoder simply says, "Emergency Activation Notification".  It does not specify that it is a test.

Our fear is that hearing impaired viewers and viewers with the audio muted will not get the full message being delivered by audio that this is only a test.  Our vendors have created some work-arounds to provide a more detailed text message but time is too short to deploy these in the thousands of locations necessary.  

The request for the delay was to allow time to incorporate these work-arounds so as to not confuse or panic those viewers not having access to the audio message.

-- 
Steven C Johnson
Johnson Telecom, LLC
www.JohnsonTelecom.com
Steve at JohnsonTelecom.com
704 968 7031
AIM  SteveJNC
 
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>On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 6:00 AM, <eas-request at radiolists.net> wrote:

>>Message: 2
>>From: Richard_Rudman <rar.bwwg at gmail.com>
>>       national test
>>       <eas at radiolists.net>
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

>>With all due respect to our cable colleagues, what appears to be happening is that the general public may have to wait a long, long time for real improvements to the warning process when it comes to radio, television and cable. Coupled with what is in my personal opinion an FCC bias toward warnings propagating over "new media", a pattern is starting to emerge.

>>Going back to discussions we had in the formative days of the Partnership for Public Warning in late 2001 and early 2002, we decided that the more new warning systems, the better, balanced with the fact that basic broadcasting is and will be the most reliable way to get protective action information to the public when there is major infrastructure impairment. What does that mean? Warnings over radio can get through when power is out and the Internet is down.

>>So , I hope the FCC will, as Dr. Laura says, "Do the right thing" as the CAP story unfolds.

>>Richard