[EAS] Form 3 Deletes IPAWS Entry

[Rich Parker]

I think that what is perhaps in danger of getting lost in this
discussion is the reality that in some cases stations aired the IPAWS
audio - which I think sounded pretty decent - but a couple of our
stations got the alert from their local LP-1 first (a quirk of the
polling interval), and when it was an AM station, the reports were
that it sounded 'noisy or scratchy'. Mind you, these are FM folks who
are not used to listening to what has sadly become of AM radio in
today's 'RFI noisy' environment.

That said, perhaps it would be best to do a few tests (like NPR has
done with Ellen Sheffield) on audio that has passed through a few
different media. Whatever the audio (or text to speech)is should sound
fairly consistent and understandable whether it is relayed directly
from a box, or is 're-relayed' through an AM station.

I think that adhering to those simple parameters should provide a
fairly easy set of benchmarks to hit for the audio that is sent out.
If they want to be 'very rigorous' they can also do what is often done
in recording studios (at least when I was in one) - play the audio
back through a boom-box, a car radio, a cheap clock radio, etc. and
see how it sounds. If the intelligibility is there, then that's the
basic criteria to meet.

Of course, since EAS never 'actually' gets used for anything but
tests, I suppose it is a moot point. So, to simplify the task, FEMA
may as well adopt whatever the NWS is using to generate their
announcements - since that is what the public (and we) are used to
hearing via EAS anyway - and at least it would be consistent. ;)

Rich Parker
Director of Engineering
CoastAlaska, Inc.

On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Botterell, Arthur at CalOES
<Arthur.Botterell at caloes.ca.gov> wrote:
> So let me get this straight... FEMA is being criticized because the quality of their product is too good?
>
> If folks are hankering for the cold war bunker sound, I'm thinking they can apply an EQ and a reverb to taste.
>
> Art
>
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