[EAS] Tests, tones and technology...

[Mike McCarthy]

I will say the the digital and control side of the EAS system worked as 
expected. With that in mind, if the whole message were simply data where 
the bits are simply reclocked and sent on (like the EAS coding itself), 
that's one thing and we'd have a much higher probability of success. At 
least the cascading degradation ingrained within the daisy chain method 
is avoided since each station then re-clocks and regenerates the data. 
But that's not the case and many areas are still stuck in the 1960's 
relay mindet.

While I'm not a big fan of CAP by IP, at least CAP by it's definition 
gets first level audio generation to the last point of distribution.  
The real challenge is to harden the CAP system such that it's survivable 
to all but the most imposing of disasters in progress.  Another 
dartboard....

To be brutally honest, I think private industry could have done this 
better end to end as an initial experiment.  Much better. While I credit 
those professional staffers with taking a sincere interest in the system 
and working within the present dysfunctional political system, there are 
far too many political hacks with zero expertise in the subject field 
involved with the system.  So much so they should have nothing to do 
with the system other than pushing a big green button labeled "go".

MM

On 11/9/2011 7:47 PM, Adrienne Abbott wrote:
> Mike--Just what could you or any broadcaster have done? Once that EAN goes
> out, you have no control over your airwaves. That's the way the system is
> designed and that's the way it worked.
>
> We can argue all night long about whether broadcasters, if given the
> opportunity to do this ourselves could have done a better job, but that's
> not the system we've been given or mandated. Within the constraints of what
> we have, the system worked. Now what remains is to find out whether FEMA and
> the FCC have the cajones to do what's needed to improve it.
> Adrienne
>
> "Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
> constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
> Behalf Of Mike McCarthy
>
> All due respect, it was a mess.