[EAS] FCC Seeks Comment on Multilingual EAS

[Robertm]

The whole issue with EAS is both historical and how government operates in general. When this all started with Conelrad it was already an unfunded mandate although nobody questioned it much at the time. At the time, it was a fairly simple system as the FCC regulated it and the ADCC directly disseminated alerts to key stations or what is now PEP by the best possible early 50s technology, the broadcast loop. There were few fingers in the pie and despite technical flaws, the system worked. 

EBS was also a fairly flat system with eventually only two originating sources but failed to evolve technologically. Basically the FCC was still in charge as the ADC and eventually FPA were pretty much black and white operations either there was an alert that got distributed because it existed or it didn't. EBS also had a direct backbone in the form of wireline feeds from the networks and teletype altering, all industry 'voluntary'.  That system could have been enhanced as satellite delivery technology came into being but that never happened.

EAS IMHO is a camel, in other words a horse designed by committee. At that point in time direct feeds by private 'voluntary' satellite feeds could have replaced copper loops, PEPs and the whole daisy chain. A number of different satellites orbiting in various positions is far more diverse than trying to keep some copper loops and what is still an essentially AM daisy chain, a legacy from the Conelrad system, which was AM only.  Too many EAS alerts in too many places are unintelligible so useless to the end user. The daisy chain is responsible for that. All that said, technology is not really the problem but politics is the big problem. First, there is now an array of federal agencies with different alphabet acronyms involved and they don't necessarily talk much to each other, then there are not only the states but various entities within various states. Herding  cats would be much easier than getting all those entities, each with their self interests, to work together. We know from the experiences many on this and other lists have shared that at the state level plans vary from being pretty well organized to almost non existent. This is unfortunately become part of our political fabric which I do not see ending anytime soon. There is so much self interest involved the public interest will never be served. For example, why should IPAWS be extended to cell phones when we all know that they are the first facility to fail. If they can't have 7 to 10 days emergency power available at each cell, what value do they have?

Some locations need the non EAN emergency warnings more than others. In NYC I don't think one has ever been issued other than by NWS whose transmitter is currently off air and I am told by someone who has recently been brought in to clean things up that the whole system around here is a 'mess'. Well see what if any funding they eventually get. I know that many RMTs fail around here, especially when the city emergency management is involved. The FEMA nationwide test was a failure IMHO thanks to its antique post WWII infrastructure. For the above reasons, I am not sure if any broadcaster here runs more than EAN,,RMT and RwT nor is there much need as there are few emergencies that warrant it. CEM might be one upstate and in Nj. In someone's wildest dreams maybe a Tsunami but everything else is either predictable or so sudden that no warning system would be useful. 

I respectfully disagree with Richard  Rudman about follow up information being a EAS event as local broadcasters do quite a good job on their own, usually with larger staffs and a better budget and no political agenda (usually). Recently we had two 6 story apartments explode, probably due to natural gaskilling 8 so far,  no way to warn in advance as was the case on 911 and many instances in between. After the fact, many diverse kinds of information needed to be disseminated. Rail traffic was affected, roads closed, shelter information for evacuees was provided. The NTSB was involved so city state,regional interstate agencies and the federal government. None communicate much more than they have to, each gave separate conferences covered by multiple reporters, all free to ask questions and many of the news entities providing helicopter coverage. A single EMS agency would never do that and would never have the resources. EAS activations would have been disruptive and much less effective. A simple gas tanker was in an accident in NJ the next day which also involved state, local and federal agencies and knocked out rail for two major systems. These were both serious event that peripherally involved 100s of thousands of people but immediately affected only a block or two. So using EAS for such events would have it running 24/7 in many larger cities and prevent dissemination of better and more diverse information. Does it make sense for stations with a 100 mile cover radius to be that granular down to the block? What about all the power outages caused in the same timeframe by high winds along with the attendant local disruptions?

If I were in an area with a known chance of an immediate hazard such as TOR, I would relay it provided I could get a clean feed. If live 24/7, I would consider live reads and avoiding EAS if what would have been relayed via EAS was unintelligible. There are reasons to selectively pass certain alert elements under certain conditions but the whole system as it exists is mired in too many layers of government which is why fixing it Quixotic. 

Regarding Language, if all I have to run is EAN, the solution is simple. Establish a percentage of population threshold for languages required to be alerted and either make it a requirement that any candidate for President speak all of them or let the White House figure out how to staff for 24/7 translation of all those languages.


> On Mar 13, 2014, at 3:01 PM, Tim Stoffel <tim at knpb.org> wrote:
> 
> As a PBS member station, we do many things for our community. But one of them is not giving the news. We would be expecting a lot of an evening/weekend master control operator to, in addition to their other duties, go out on a set and give details on the emergency-- all by themselves. And what about at night, when we run without a human being in the control room?
> 
> Goat bars, anyone?  ;)
> 
> Tim Stoffel, KNPB
> 
> --
> 
> -----Original Message-----] On Behalf Of Barry Mishkind
> 
>        Well, that *would* be in the spirit of serving  
>        the community of license. 
> 
>        Yes, I agree, many, many broadcasters do no
>        more than give lip service to the community
>        (no pun intended).
> 
> __________________________________________________________
> 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
> ___________________________________________________________
>