[EAS] [] Daisy Chain

[Marlin Jackson]

CAP should be an add-on to the existing EAS system. The Washington State plan keeps all legacy systems in place. One of the local area emergency management departments decided to disconnect the old gray Sage and not install the new one received from the state thinking every alert will be done via CAP. They are having log in issues so for over two months haven't been able to originate the scheduled RMTs and alerts if needed. I'd call that a severe safety issue. I think there was an assumption that the Gray Sage had to be replace and they didn't want to learn a new system. In fact in an Emergency Operations Center CAP in an endec isn't needed. The old Sage or any other unit will still work the same for legacy radio systems. Washington State DEM uses a new unit with CAP to relay alerts onto the legacy radio system. Redundancy is the key. It's common to get a CAP message and at least 2 duplicates.
 

 
Marlin Jackson, CSTE
Assistant Chief Engineer,
RF Systems
KXLY Broadcast Group
500 W Boone
Spokane, WA 99201
marlinj at kxly.com
509-329-4908
 
>>> Alex Hartman <goober at goobe.net> 10/17/2012 8:53 AM >>>
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Anyone else seeing the lines blurring here? I thought CAP was supposed
to be an add-on to the existing EAS system, but with the discussion
here i'm getting the distinct feeling that CAP is really (like we knew
all along) a replacement system.

It still scares the crap out of me having them all plugged into the
Internet... It's not difficult for people to get these boxes, reverse
engineer the protocol and set off an EAN from any other part of the
world. The EAS system at least requires being local to the LP station
or PEP station with a transmitter to trigger a fake alert.

Don't get me wrong, there were flaws in the EAS system (discovered
much later obviously) and CAP does plug a few of those holes, but just
like anything else, they create new holes to get into.

--
Alex Hartman

On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 10:46 AM, Darryl Parker <dparker at tftinc.com> wrote:
> __________________________________________________________
> The EAS Forum Discussion List is hosted by the BWWG (Broadcast Warning Working Group). http://eas.radiolists.net
> Please invite your friends to join our Forum! The sign up is at: http://lists.radiolists.net/mailman/listinfo/eas
> ___________________________________________________________
>
> Eric,
>
> You just hit upon Art Botterell's original ideas in the development of CAP. Now an emergency manager with a CAP posting tool can reach many platforms and systems to alert the public with a single message. The tools vary in price and features. A CAP posting tool presents the easiest solution to triggering EAS.
>
> Regards,
> Darryl E.Parker
> TFT, Inc.
> San Jose, California 95131-1708 USA
> Tel: (1) 408-943-9323, Extension 223
> www.TFTInc.com
>
> ... I would hope that the EMs have something quite a bit more user friendly than these boxes.  If they don't, is there an easy-to-use software or hardware solution availble that we might suggest they look at?  The EM here is great at communicating but he has a lot more to do than to communicate via EAS -- I would hope that sending an EAS message is not a major hinderance in a time where he's being pulled in 20+ different directions.
>