[EAS] Yesterday's CAP RWT

[Dave Turnmire]

On 10/12/2012 10:42 AM, Don Heppelmann wrote:
> ...Do you see the line that says additional tests may be performed anytime?  Also again, if a participant is not conducting/originating a weekly test using the RWT alert code, and is also relying on a auto-forwarding for that weekly test from another incoming originator, IMHO I'm not a lawyer, I believe the EB would have an issue with it. Most EAS encoders have a feature that will auto originate the RWT for broadcast. Those organizations that are under staffed can utilize this feature to remain compliant.
I'm not sure that I see the distinction between having the box forward 
an RWT weekly and having it automatically generate it itself.  Both have 
the upside of verifying that your box is capable of both sending and 
receiving the RWT.  Both have the disadvantage that they are unattended 
(more or less, depending on situation) and thus some serious problems 
can be overlooked... like having it patched out of the transmission 
chain or the resulting modulation level being too low.

That being said, while I think either would pass legal muster (and no, 
I'm not an attorney), I would think that most broadcasters would find 
the automated RWT generation to be superior to the forwarding of the 
RWTs.  As far as I know, all the boxes out there, or at least most, lack 
the ability to discriminate between WHICH source you are getting that 
RWT from.  So... if you rely on the internal automated RWT, then you get 
one per week.  But, if you forward RWTs, you'll likely get three or 
four... or more.  As in your two traditional RF based monitoring 
assignments, plus IPAWS' RWT(s), perhaps a CAP server that your state 
provides, and perhaps an NOAA Weather RWT. And all of that is assuming 
that each of those sources only sent one that week.  In my area, it 
isn't that unusual (but not common) for any of our sources to generate 
three or four within an hour when they are trouble shooting some issue.
> I still don't understand why anyone would want FEMA to offer a pre-alert or notification (to everyone?)  in order to send out a RWT alert code. I hope this is not getting confused with the RMT, that's a whole different animal. Can someone please explain to me the need for this and how it will improve the system. Why would anyone want to limit FEMA from orginating the RWT for routine testing?
> ...
I'm with you on this one.  We don't get that info from any of our other 
sources as a rule.  I'd rather FEMA staff focus their resources on 
things like having a reliable internet connection than diverting time 
and energy to let us know about occasional tests done in addition to the 
Monday scheduled test.  In most cases that come to mind, the reason for 
these un-scheduled tests are likely to involve testing 
hardware/systems/personnel, etc were the specific FIPS code isn't 
particularly important.  So there simply isn't a reason for them to send 
EVERY RWT to ALL the time zones.  I check my logs weekly as per the 
rules, and do a quick count to make sure I got an alert from each of my 
monitored sources and that I sent one. Then I sign my log indicating all 
is well and go on with the million or two other things on my do list.

Dave