[EAS] FCC NPRM on improving EAS just issued

[Tim Stoffel]

The daisy-chain system is one of the unique strengths of EAS. Killing it off would be about the worst thing the FCC can do.

Imagine a disaster that takes out the internet, or at least major portions of it. When you most need EAS, it won't function because the internet is out. The daisy chain system will still work (if it isn't eliminated) because at least some individual broadcasters will be able to stay on the air and get a signal out. That signal won't be limited or slowed by internet infrastructure. Yeah, the daisy chain system is crude. Yeah, it has faults. But for the most part it works, and it has historically worked. Old technology isn't necessarily bad. IMHO, if they want to phase out the daisy chain, they might as well phase out EAS entirely, and warn people through their phones (which is also highly failure-prone).

Emergency systems need to be simple and foolproof.

In what I have studied of the rest of this NPRM, it is a Pandora's box, a disaster waiting to happen. Although what is actually in the rules isn't too outlandish (although I take issue with having to log each and every remote access to my EAS boxes)(Oh, and modifying the EAS header codes will cause nightmares for equipment manufacturers, and will permanently obsolete a lot of EAS equipment), some of the ideas the FCC is looking for input on are just insane. Centralized control of EAS, for instance. Why don't they just send in the Stormtroopers and take over all the broadcast stations? Enhanced EAS for different groups/cultures? An utter nightmare to implement, if it can be implemented at all. Some of the security ideas they are hinting at are outlandish and impractical. In short, if they try and go beyone what they already have proposed, it will be just to bankrupt broadcasters, which is an all-but-stated goal of the FCC.

Is there such a big problem with the inadvertent EAS misbroadcasts, that such an extreme overreaction is necessary? I wonder how much time any of the bureaucrats or commissioners have actually spent in a control room?

I need to sit down and read through the whole thing. But in sort, the EAS NPRM is a fine example of the gross level of governmental regulatory overreach that increasingly exemplifying government at all levels, but especially the Federal government. 

Tim Stoffel