[EAS] Strict Time

[Alex Hartman]

I have zero financial interest in the system. It's been a boon since day one for many stations, financial and otherwise. It's a necessary evil. Having the manufacturers at the table is actually a very good thing, they are the ones who have to implement the ideas after all, but I saw very little in CAP that came from the community... that is, until it was released and all the flaws were pointed out. The IPAWS thing came from pencil pushers, not people who have to work with the system. It's very well known that it was hobbled to make congressional deadlines.

So, what i'm seeing here Ed, is that the government approached you for a new answer, you said "well, i think we could do this..." and they took that ball and turned it into the mess we have today? Then why doesn't that particular community own up and say "yeah, that's not what we meant" and present a better option? CAP is viable, but not in it's current implementation and form. It has a lot left to be desired, there's too many single points of failure in the entire system to actually function correctly, not to mention the ridiculous number of steps required to actually issue an alert.

We all knew when CAP became a thing that EAS was on it's way out, even if they said "they'll co-exist". It's nothing more than a transition piece. Again, from the outside looking in. I'm an end user, so far the "standards" that have been used have ended up a lot like the codecs and everything else out there. Nobody has a single system that just plain works. Sage is the same way. Who the hell puts highest priority at 63?! Things like that where us people who have to review the system (on behalf of the government as you pointed out to avoid the fines), but get left holding the potato when things go wrong. This day in age moves too fast to keep up with things like this, which is where you guys at the BWWG come in and make these decisions. But there has to be a subset of implementation guidelines to keep everything on the same page. 

How did the phone company start? The government trusted the guys who built it, now it's the other way around. The government is telling us how it works, with ZERO knowledge of the technology, and wants kill switches and everything else. Of course as a manufacturer, you're not going to cut your own throat and tell them no... The community at large who has to deal with this stuff should be standing up and giving symposiums in front of congress to tell them how big of a mess they've made. But i'm not seeing NAB, CPB, SBE, etc jumping up and running for this... 

Of course it's all pie in the sky anyways. A group of people this vocal and opinionated (and i'll admit i'm one of them!) will never EVER agree on a single item. Everything will end up in compromise hell. :)

Don't take it personally Ed, you're the messenger, i get that. But the messenger tends to bare the brunt on the front lines.

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Alex Hartman