[EAS] CAP EAS Geography Problem

[Adrienne Abbott]

Bill--
My question is not about the national RWT that FEMA issues every Monday.
It's about local EAS tests and activations issued by local and state
emergency managers. We receive the FEMA RWT just fine, but apparently if an
Emergency Manager wants to issue a test like the January RMT for the Western
Nevada/Eastern California EAS Operating Area (Nevada has three Operating
Areas and they overlap parts of 4 states), he/she can only issue the test
for the Nevada counties and not the California counties, which means the
California licensed stations in the Western Nevada/Eastern California Op
Area don't get the CAP version of the test. California, at least the
counties east of the Sierra Crest, do not have access to CAP technology yet.
The stations will still receive the OTA version of the test complete with
the test audio but the TV stations and cable providers won't get the CAP
version with the specific test message.  

The second wrinkle in this "hairball" is that I'm told the January RMT which
the state Division of Emergency Management is supposed to issue should just
be coded for "All Nevada" rather than coded for each of the 17 counties in
Nevada and that's a problem. A statewide test is fine but we don't have
statewide emergencies or disasters. Our Operating Areas don't overlap, no
broadcast signal reaches from one area to another. Normally, each Operating
Area runs its own RMT schedule. And activations for one area don't usually
apply to other areas. For example, if there's a wildland fire and homes in
an area of Reno, which is Washoe County, are being evacuated, the EAS EVI
should not be run in the Las Vegas area which would happen if the "All
Nevada" FIPS code was programmed into everyone's EAS unit. I don't know if
the programming in the new EAS units can be set to tailor specific Locator
Codes for each Event Code.  

I don't know if these problems are manufacturer-specific. We have Sage,
DASDEC, Trilithic, TFT and a couple of Gorman Redlich units here. They all
seem to respond the same way to the use of the "All Nevada" FIPS code. When
our state and local agencies first began using CAP last summer I was getting
complaints that tests meant for the Western Nevada Op Area were received in
the Southern Nevada Op Area. I can only imagine what's going to happen this
summer during fire season.  

Adrienne Abbott
Nevada EAS Chair

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of William Eaton

Just a question  to resolve my curiosity demon, so take pity on the
ignoorant.....In Fl. our state EAS plan assigns the LP1,2 & alternate