[EAS] Observations and a question

[David Turnmire]

On 7/3/2012 7:55 PM, Gregory Muir wrote:
> ...While spending all of that time (up until midnight each evening) installing the equipment, I quickly became aware of the manufacturer's (namely Sage) ambitious effort to put as many possible permutations as they could into the programming of the filters.  I respect the flexibility offered but spent a lot of time scratching my head as I went through the effort of trying to use my best judgment as to how to handle many of the events now affected by alerts emanated from new sources.  ...
In my experience, the SAGE is the best unit out there in regards to 
allowing flexible "filtering" of alerts.  And yet for some applications, 
I have asked for a bit more (filtering by "monitor input" in addition to 
current choices).  Still, that flexibility comes at a price... it makes 
it more difficult to program.  If your mindset/training is that of a 
computer programmer, it isn't that hard. But plenty of broadcast 
engineers that are fully capable in other areas will struggle to get 
their head wrapped around the choices available.  Fortunately, in my 
experience, that complexity tends to be needed at only a few places in 
the EAS infrastructure (such as emergency management or perhaps LPs).  
The typical broadcaster can generally get by with a pretty simple 
configuration. And fortunately, that aspect of the SAGE hasn't changed 
much since the pre-CAP days, so if you had the older SAGE, you can start 
with its configuration.

I'd suggest that LECCs provide a sample "template" for broadcasters in 
their area, vetted by an engineer skilled in programming the SAGE.  
Designed such that they don't need to do much but fine tune the list of 
counties in their "Local Area", specify their call sign, configure local 
network settings, and a few things like that. In any event, trying to 
learn from scratch something as complex as the SAGE (or other EAS boxes 
for that matter), is probably best not done within a couple days of a 
legal deadline!  Of course, we are often dealt a hand not of our 
choosing, so we must make do as best we can...

Dave