[EAS] Overlap/monitoring issue

[Mark Ericson]

In New Hampshire we have multiple NOAA transmitters. We found that if multiple alerts came in with similar or overlapping counties, we would get the train wreck you scribed. If we got multiple alerts with the exact same counties, the box would disregard one as a duplicate. If there's a difference of even one county the box sees it as a different, more up to date message and will air it. We are geographically small enough so that at the request of broadcasters our NOAA office agreed to code everything for all of NH. Not sure if that's an option elsewhere.

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On Mar 6, 2014, at 3:54 PM, "Paul Campbell" <pcampbell at maxmediava.com> wrote:

>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 satisfi!
>es 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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