[EAS] State use of NPT

[Alex Hartman]

Al Kenyon gave a presentation at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic last week that was quite informative on this. Right now, with the regionalized testing of the NPT, it's uncovering localized flaws and allowing FEMA to better understand what could go wrong should they activate nationwide. So far, the results are very positive with a better than 80% capture rate, but they've identified vendor issues of caching in some hardware, the allowance of "no audio" with the tones, etc. This allows for better scrutiny over the entire system if you break it up in to smaller chunks. 

But the NPT itself shouldn't come from a local level, i agree. It's a National test, meaning FEMA/DHS should be the administering party. But the NPT can supplant a RMT as well, so if they adjust the timing right, the RMT is not needed for that month the NPT went out.

AFAIK, the NPT regional testing right now isn't going through the FCC, just FEMA. So any feedback i believe is going to Al and his group for study and reporting... for now.

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Alex Hartman