[EAS] New EAS Forum posting: A vision for what to do now that the FCC has eliminated the GMC

[Mike McCarthy]

While Bill and me are at differing perspectives many times (sic), I 
agree with him here. Broadcast showed it can get the message out WHEN it 
gets to us. And broadcast and cable has the technical resources in place 
nationwide to create and support the back-end distribution pipeline. 
This is a resource most municipal agencies and many states do not enjoy 
and therein lies one of the two problem cruxes.

Technical matters can be physically solved and left in place 
indefinitely as long as the functionality goal is sustained. Just look 
at the 15K or so EAS boxes still in operation from 1997. The 
distribution chain can be a fixed, stable, and generally consistent 
commodity (big picture view) once established. In Illinois, the same 
radio system capably services the state today as it did in 1997.

The other "crux" as Bill opines is training. And is likely a bigger and 
more costly and complex ongoing issue as it is a never ending ongoing 
mission encompassing dynamic scenarios ever expanding or morphing into 
the present day's crisis of the moment. Never mind the self announcing 
events needing immediate response(s).

While the unfunded mandate of new hardware is a costly one for Part 73, 
74 and 78 licensees and operators, it's of little value if the front end 
of the system is untrained in it's use.  Doesn't matter if it's the 
local PASP/EOC or FEMA.

Cheers...

Mike McCarthy

On 1/14/2012 1:54 PM, Bill Ruck wrote:
> Ed,
>
> You have made some very good points and I agree with all of them.
>
> But I think you've got the sequence backwards.
>
> NUMERO UNO should be training.  FEMA and everybody in the emergency
> services world needs to know what CAP is and how to use it.  CAP and
> IPAWS and EAS needs to be fully integrated into incident management.
>
> Training costs money which nobody has these days.  I would much
> rather see FEMA fund training than hardware.
>
> The issue from my perspective is the broadcast engineering world is
> at the end of the chain.  Attention and funding needs to focus on the
> beginning of the chain.
>
> Once we have the emergency services world using CAP the rest becomes
> icing on the cake.
>
> Bill Ruck
> Curmudgeon
> San Francisco
>
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