[EAS] Overlap/monitoring issue

[Paul Campbell]

I've got an issue here in SE Virginia that's been giving me some trouble. I'll set the scene: I'm LP-1 (WGH-FM) for my 19 localities here. One of my areas (Surry County) is served by two separate NOAA transmitters, due to the fact that the entire county can't be covered by just one. I monitor one of these NOAA's, while my SR (WRVA in Richmond) monitors the other. This Tuesday, Virginia will be having its annual Statewide Tornado Drill, during which the live code TOR will be used instead of RMT. Here's what usually happens during this Statewide Tornado Drill: I'll get a TOR from the NOAA radio that serves my area, which will include Surry in its locations. While in the middle of forwarding this TOR, it'll get interrupted and cutoff by WRVA forwarding the TOR it received from its NOAA radio. This other TOR will also have Surry as a location, and because of that my Sage will kick out the alert that's currently airing in favor of this newer one, since this newer one also satisfies my "TOR" filter. It's a total train wreck on-air, and it's happened two years in a row. In order to not threepeat, I'm going to temporarily disconnect WRVA from my Sage while this Statewide Drill is happening, so I can forward my NOAA alert in its entirety. (Adding to the drama here is the fact that Surry County also has one of the state's two Nuclear Power Plants, which needless to say plays an integral role in EAS for my area as well as Richmond.)

This solution is clearly not optimal. I'm wondering if anyone else has to deal with this overlap issue with NOAA transmitters. It's not just during this Statewide Tornadio Drill, either. Actual TOR's and FFW's that roll through the area between here and Richmond cause this problem to happen whenever Surry County is involved. Cheers.

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