[EAS] [BC] Late news on the EAS Web Forms

[Tom Taggart]

Barry:

The key questions on coordinates is "why" and "what for."

If the issue is coverage of the PEP or primary relay station
(e.g. --"EAN didn't go through because signal was too weak
from the station we are supposed to monitor" then what they
really want is the location of the EAS decoder.

For most of us that's the studio, not the transmitter.

Using transmitter coordinates just confuses the issue. 
Especially where there are six different forms filed for the
typical six station cluster, --but they are all using the
same decoder.

Second issue is that the facility number and coordinates
questions are bound to be filled in wrong for many stations.
As we have already discovered, the decimal entry thing is
confusing even the engineers on this list. Many stations
only have a contract engineer anymore--EAS stuff is handled
by a non-technical staff member.

Of course, this presumes they even know about the form, or
the test, for that matter. We have a low-power station in
town that is taken care of by a local two-way engineer. 
Good engineer, used to do broadcast work but that was eons
ago. Called his company today as we needed their satellite
guy to bring up his S/A to set up a new dish. Asked him if
the low power station had EAS equipment.  Answer: What's
EAS?

(There's a retired Gorman-Redlich & printer waiting for him
at the front desk of one of my stations--just dropped it
off)