[EAS] Fwd: [ChicagolandSkywarn] WEA Enabled Phones to Receive Emergency Messages

[Eric Adler]

I don't think relying on the user/listener is sane or proper for an emergency messaging implementation.  If we were relying on the user, s/he could have his address programmed into his/her phone and network based messaging could be used.  The major draw to having FM appears to be that, while phones move, FM is always (relatively) locally originated.  

I was traveling last summer and away from any familiar stations for a number of days, in a part of the country that I'd never even visited before, I didn't know what was on the FM dial other than the music station I found to keep myself sane on the road; it is highly unlikely for someone to become aware of what station to tune to for emergency information in a relatively short period of time.  I live in an area that was hit with natural disaster this past fall and folks still don't seem to agree 100% on what station is best to tune to for their emergency information needs.  I think when designing emergency notification, one needs to think about someone who just "appeared" and has minimal knowledge of the area; an airline passenger traveling who is stopped at an unfamiliar airport for a layover, awaiting his/her next flight, for a more practical example.  

I think a better course of action might be some sort of alerting tone (or perhaps a subcarrier?) that notified of availability of messaging.  NOAA would, of course, be a nice addition to phones... perhaps there could be stations that volunteer to rebroadcast their local NOAA NWS NWR station in an emergency and the (list of) frequency(-ies) could be encoded in NOAA's EAS activation?

Just some thoughts...

Eric