[EAS] New EAS Forum posting on Intermediary Devices

[Sean Donelan]

On Mon, 23 Jan 2012, Richard_Rudman wrote:
> When a CAP message is filtered by conversion to SAME it is analogous a 
> CAP message being run through a filter, in short, what starts out as a 
> rich and nourishing full course dinner winds up as a strained, thin, and 
> watery broth. The BWWG believes that every effort should be made to 
> integrate the capabilities of CAP into all aspects of the EAS as soon as 
> possible to eliminate the bottleneck that SAME creates.

What are the actual goals?

NOAA weatherwire carries all NWR watches and warnings, and 
distributes them nationwide within a few seconds.  Some television 
and radio stations have been using the NOAA weather wire, or various 
commercial services, for years to program their on-air graphics and 
messages. Those stations don't use EAS/SAME for any weather watch or
warning information.  AP newswire and reporters distribute most other
emergency information when they get it.

Is CAP just a slower, cheaper version of weatherwire or newswire?  NOAA 
has CAP formatted feed on its website now, so why wait for the FCC to do 
something.  News directors already can "opt out" of EAS for state/local, 
but still carry emergency information using better news sources such as
directly from weatherwire or commercial sources.  EAS isn't the sole 
source of emergency information.

A question is why would LP-1 stations continue to voluntarily translate 
CAP to EAS/SAME formatted messages on-air after they have CAP equipment? 
EAS/SAME seems to exists to support inter-station signalling for
broadcast and cable stations that don't have their own reliable news, 
weather or CAP wire services.

One possible response by a LP-1 station after installing its CAP 
equipment is to resign as a LP-1 volunteer.  That way the station only 
must carry the minimum required EAS/SAME formatted messages.  It 
can still use CAP to generate on-air programming with emergency 
information without the regulatory overhead of supporting on-air 
inter-station signalling of the EAS/SAME protocol.

If you don't have to generate the EAS/SAME annoying sounds for 
inter-station signalling, what does a CAP sourced emergency information 
look and sound like on the air?

By 2015, will there still be any LP-1 volunteers to transmit CAP 
to EAS/SAME for inter-station signalling?