[EAS] Alerting in General

[Dave Kline]

I'm very much in agreement with what you say Rod.
As the Joe Blow engineer out in the field trying to make it all work and make sense of it, this whole State Plan business has always been frustrating at best.
I can only imagine how it is for the SECCs and other who having to act as a "middle-man" so to speak between the fed and the stations under their watchful eye.

Stations are required to monitor EAS sources per a state plan that is apparently not actually mandated to have to exist at all.
That's how it seems from my not too lofty perch. And even if a state is somehow under some kind of order to create a state plan, the FCC has no jurisdiction for enforcement.

Perhaps if the FCC were not as much a player in EAS, except possibly for enforcement of violations, and some agency with some clout over states, aka the FEMA, via the handling of disaster funding, were playing a larger role it might clear the way to less confusion. Having an SECC could be an option for states in the same way that federal money goes to state highway departments to help build roads. The fed doesn't pay for it all, but they pony up a significant enough amount that states are not likely to pass on the option.

I know that such statements smack of big government and other such foul language.
But warning systems designed to save lives and protect property are just about as basic as building roads and other infrastructure for the common good and the promotion of commerce.

Funding and administration for those systems should at least have guidelines with minimum standards of operation and most importantly, incentives for compliance. If a state or other entity choses to not meet certain minimums, they do not get to dip into the feed trough of federal "incentives." That state ultimately suffers the unintended consequences of not playing along to provide basic services.
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Dave Kline
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On Aug 23, 2017, at 12:01 PM, Rod Zeigler wrote:

>The one thing I see having a very bright light shone on it in the EAS State Plan thread is the oft cursed ambiguity in the FCC EAS Rules and Regs.
>SECC's are alluded to in the context of being the go-to authority in the States for monitoring assignments. That is all.
>What the various States do, or don't do, with regards to SECC's is totally up to those States since there are no other guidelines.
>FEMA has the authority to designate PEP stations, but the FCC has the operating authority over those same stations.
>FEMA IPAWS set up the Cap Aggregator for alerts which distributes, via public internet, those alerts to various outlets. EAS and WEA being two separate entities getting those alerts.
>Alert dissemination via EAS and WEA is under the purview of the FCC. We have a multi level interface between two different government agencies with two different missions.
>I am surprised it works as well as it does, and that is due to the dedicated people in both agencies that want to make it work. I could be a nightmare, but it isn't.
>Alert origination is even more disparate than alert dissemination. Everything below a Federal level alert is left to the States to handle as they see fit.
>Alerting directly to the public (WEA) is in its infancy and alert origination via this method is far from mature. It has the promise of being a primary alerting source, but not quite yet.

>We have various other agencies wanting a seat on the alerting bus, such as the DoJ and Blue Alerts. These boutique alerts will grow as others discover needs as yet unseen.

>I have heard "Be careful what you wish for", but some kind of definition of SECC's needs to be made at the Federal level to handle the Federal alerting requirements. Further definition can be done at the State level to meet that States needs, but a definitive foundation at the Federal level is paramount.

>Alerting the public needs to be a subject of study by the Emergency Management community just as they study sheltering displaced persons, radiological monitoring, communications, and other areas they are responsible for. Alerting, in all of its forms, must also become part of the Incident Command System. Alerting has gone way beyond the days of the tornado siren and with current and future technological advancement, will be an evolving science for the foreseeable future.

>--
>R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
>Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
>Chairman, Ne. SECC
>Exec. Dir, NEBA

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