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

[Brian Law]

Adrienne,

With all due respect, from my conversations with Inyo and Mono counties, they are not at all interested in using EAS, nor have they been.  The only time EAS has been activated in Inyo is when a CHP officer called the station directly to activate it.

And incidentally,
As far as I have been able to ascertain, and please someone let me know if this has changed, the EDIS system in California is still not set up to activate to serve CAP messages through its server.  As far as I know, there are currently no plans for a CAP server in California.  Also Community Development funding has been taken away from counties in California since the Supreme court ruled last week.

Maybe I am cynical, but I have tried for years to get the county on board with EAS.  They do not want to.  They are perfectly happy with their phone system.  Too bad too, since it appears Code Red does not have any plans to serve up CAP messages.

I am not trying to make excuses, and I don't have anything against the FCC getting rid of converter boxes for legacy EAS.  As far as I am concerned, they should do it this year instead of 2015, but it is really unfortunate that many of us saved and scraped for funds to upgrade to CAP, only to find out it wasn't good enough.  While Trilithic's Software solution may pass the smell test (According to Triltihic), those with other legacy boxes, who upgraded at the the last minute with converter boxes would be better served with a different attitude coming from the community.  Not all care, but many of us have made good faith efforts not only to comply, but to serve our communities with emergency communications when needed.

But...

I will make one more try at this, maybe there is a way.  One station at least has not yet upgraded to CAP.

So, is there a CAP server that is available to California Counties that does not cost counties to access?  Anyone know?  That would be a game changer.

Thanks Adrienne, for the PEP talk.

:)

Brian
Living Proof Inc

On 1/23/2012 3:10 PM, Adrienne Abbott wrote:

>Brian--
>We all understand limited resources but it's apparent from the R&O that
>there is a life-span to legacy EAS and the converter boxes. And there's no
>guarantee that the economy is going to be any different in the near future.
>But above all, you and your fellow broadcasters there in the Eastern Sierra
>really should come together and work on getting the county to help pay for
>your CAP equipment. After all, CAP is NOT for broadcasters, it's for
>emergency managers and the public and while county officials want to make a
>big deal out of their telephone notification systems, those things cost
>money every month. CAP does the same job and more and the state already has
>the backbone EDIS program which buttons right into CAP. Broadcasters from
>Elko to Omaha are getting local governments to use Community Development
>grants for new EAS equipment. You need to do the same, and you need to do it
>before fire season.
>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 Brian Law

>Adrienne, All

>To Clarify my last message, I have the utmost respect for Adrienne and the
>rest of the experts in the EAS community, but Adrienne's comments about
>those who chose to go the less expensive route was taking it a little far.

>We had to get a "software solution" for the Trilithic, which is not much
>different from a converter box, because the EASyCast box was NOT CAP
>Compliant.  Also, if we had not had a Trilithic, we would have been still
>using a Gorman Redlich, and we would most likely  have had  to make the same
>choice to buy a converter box for the Gorman Redlich.  We simply do not have
>the resources to go spending money willy nilly.

>>From what we read and what we were able to gather as far as information
>goes, we and many other small stations were mis-led, both by the
>manufacturers and FEMA.  We still decided to wait until the last minute to
>"pull the trigger" and purchase the software solution for the Triltihic.  It
>was only a few days after we purchased that the FCC decided to extend the
>deadline.
>If we had been able to wait, we would have (possibly) been able to make a
>more informed decision.

>Again: I highly  respect Adrienne and the other Experts in this EAS
>community, but that was taking things too far IMHO.

>My two cents.

>:)

>Brian Law
>Living Proof Inc

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