[EAS] Cable TV Problems

[Adrienne Abbott]

On 11/25/2011, Clay wrote: 
Not only did this resolve the problem but it, for the first time, produced a
system where the text and audio were transmitting the SAME message  (Think
Cable and TV)

Do all the cable TV systems in Washington State have the equipment to carry
CAP messages like this? Our cable TV provider here says they force-tuned all
channels for the National EAS test, but nothing happened on either of the
two channels I watched during the test. The cable company hasn't said it
directly, but their theory is that the station where I was watching the test
had old cable boxes for their TV's and those boxes couldn't handle the
force-tuning process. That means there are probably a lot of other cable
customers out there who don't have the right kind of boxes and probably
aren't getting EAS activations. At present, the cable company isn't planning
to upgrade these boxes. There's no way to tell how many of them are in the
field and how many people aren't getting critical information in an
emergency. It seems to me that as we transition to CAP, this deficiency is a
significant problem and should be a strong enough reason for getting rid of
any kind of legacy equipment. 
Adrienne

"Radio burps, it cries, it needs to be fed all the time, it requires
constant attention, but we love it." Jim Aaron WGLN