[EAS] New Posting on the EAS Forum

[Clay Freinwald]

Responding to the comments of- 

 Reid Fletcher
Chief Engineer, KUWR, KUWY, KUWL
Wyoming Public Radio

My Comments start with a CF - 

The majority of broadcasters I've spoken to in my state have indicated that
the sole PEP in my state is effectively not receivable by them due to the
ever increasing noise levels coming from all the spectrum pollution
worsening over time above and beyond just being to distant.

The majority of broadcasters I've spoken to in my state have indicated that
the sole PEP in my state is effectively not receivable by them due to the
ever increasing noise levels coming from all the spectrum pollution
worsening over time above and beyond just being to distant.

CF - The PEP system never was designed to cover the nation - especially at
night.   Here in Washington State our PEP reliably covers about 1/3 of the
state and less at night.   When EAS was born, it was pretty clear that it
was the responsibility of the states to provide a method to distribute the
output of the PEP to the rest of the state.  This we did using a State Relay
Network (SRN) comprised of a microwave back-bone feeding a number of
mountain top VHF transmitters.    This system has served us well.   The
issue here is that the FCC did not make is very clear that this was to be
done by every state.....A vague un-funded situation.

CF - This underscores my long held belief that if you want EAS to truly
function- You are going to have to go well beyond Part 11 to make it do so.
Another way of looking at this is to ask the question...Do you wish EAS to
really work - or - do you just wish to be Part 11 compliant?

Hence, some broadcasters have, outside of the assignments indicated in the
state plan have failed over our signal for meeting EAS monitoring
assignments as required by part 11 because of difficulties getting signals
from elsewhere.

CF - Again, these are problems and/or issues that can be resolved.  However,
they must be resolved by the states SECC's, LECC' setc.    The Feds are not
going to ride into town on their great white horse with gifts of money and
hardware.      Bottom line - How much work is your state willing to do to
make EAS functional to the degree that you are satisfied with the result?   

Clay Freinwald
Chair, Washington State SECC