[EAS] National Weather Service Message Flooding

[Mike McCarthy]

We have such a system now...it's called....(wait a minute, drum roll)....

RDS.

There are very few places where a single FM doesn't have ***any*** 
signal coverage.  (OK, Maybe the middle of Glacier or Yosemite National 
Parks....)

I will admit there are logisitical and technical issues if a station 
isn't already doing title and artis RDS. And again is one of those pesky 
unfunded mandate matters should the FCC make it mandatory to support 
such a system.

But in theory, I agree. However, the whole EAS system at that point 
should go to a background function in continuous confidence testing and 
"unmuting" when needed.  Heck, national tests would be a snap if 
everything operated in background with ongoing confidence testing.

That still doesn't solve the NWS message flooding matter however. It 
only takes the message off the main channel of broadcasters.

I don't think matching coverages between any given NSW WFO/NWR and 
relaying partners has anything to do with the flooding. Broadcast and 
cable stations can cater their relaying based on their own parameters.  
Be it one county or as many as they choose.  Once the NWS includes that 
county, the messages go.

The flooding problem boils down to these two very basic points: 1) The 
methods NWS employs in determining the genesis of a warning; 2) The 
parameters employed to define the associated warning polygon. Each has 
it's own sets of circumstances and points of discussion which can vary 
by location.

MM

On 9/28/2013 12:05 PM, Richard_Rudman wrote:
> Compounding this problem:  Coverage of the stations relaying NWS EAS messages do not match either the NWS forecast zones or political boundaries.
>
> In my personal opinion the long rang solution for this is to build into mass media reception devices the capability to become "warning appliances" that can sense, record and display long form warnings out of the main program stream -- and be programmable by users.