[EAS] Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way

[Adrienne Abbott]

So basically, we--broadcasters, emergency managers and our communities--are
being held hostage in the last century by equipment that was designed in the
early '90's while most of us have the technology that fixes the problems
that came with legacy EAS. It's interesting to me that all the posts here
voice our concerns with the FCC rules that prevent us from fully utilizing
CAP. As near as I can tell, the only advantage to a certain add-on converter
box is price and nothing more. No one is writing in to claim any reason for
using that equipment other than money. My advice to those apparently few
broadcasters who can't afford the cost of new EAS equipment is that you
contact your state or local emergency manager and ask them to fund your new
equipment through a Community Development grant. It's been done in many
communities. There are plenty of sales reps who are only too willing to help
you. While you're wringing your hands and crying over costs, you're holding
the rest of us back.
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 Harold Price

The footnotes indicate that the FCC is going to defer action on this until
after they finish their review of the Nov 9 test. 

      "Accordingly, it would be premature to take any actions with respect
to adding a new national EAS location code until after we have reviewed and
processed the test data from the November 9, 2011 Nationwide EAS Test.
Accordingly, we defer taking any action on this matter at this time."

The sticking point on this is the old legacy devices in the field, i.e.,
those that intermediary devices must depend on.  Many of those 16 year old
devices can't handle a new 000000 code.  Some of those devices can't be
updated.  The FCC can't mandate that those old devices be updated, only that
they no longer be used if they don't conform with the new rules. Adding the
000000 code would make the use of the intermediary devices problematic.
Keeping EANs mired in 1996 may be an unintended side effect of allowing
intermediary devices.

Harold