[EAS] Humans

Tue Oct 3 11:50:42 CDT 2017

Clay / Bill,

Certainly Bill's characterization of "broadcast" is accurate.  It's possible to use a broadcast medium to deliver more precisely targeted messages, but that requires a certain amount of "intelligence" in the receiver.  Our cellular cousins are experimenting with that right now.  One of the several advantages of that is that it isn't necessary for the human user to know the name of where they are (they might be traveling, for example)... the alert can tell them, if you're seeing/hearing this, this message is for you where you are.

And the operational reality is that very many... I'll go so far as to say the vast majority... of warnings need to be targeted to an area much smaller than a broadcast station's coverage.  In fact it's impressive how many additional uses a warning system has if it can be targeted to smaller areas... I'm talking missing persons, local shelter-in-place for a hazmat or law enforcement situation, etc.  EAS as we have it makes such potentially life-saving alerts politically impossible.

And NWS has a statutory duty to issue weather warnings in the best way they can.  I don't think we can reasonable expect them to compromise the hard-won precision of their alerts... or the reduced public push-back they cause... just to accommodate the broadcast industry's relatively elderly technology.
Art
________________________________________
From: EAS <eas-bounces at radiolists.net> on behalf of Clay Freinwald <k7cr at blarg.net>

For the record - I love the comments of Bill Ruck  and would like to make a
few of my own -

> The problem with boundaries (as Bill points out) is that radio signals
have never respected them (Read about Line A sometime)  The other problem is
that Joe Average does not know where they are either.

>  Broadcasting and WEA are very different in many ways.    (As any wireless
provider will be happy to preach about)

>  SECC's and LECC's - (Despite the warnings to the contrary) need to be
involved with all forms of public warning systems - fully understanding the
strengths and weaknesses of them all.

>  I like to refer to the various public warning systems as 'Tools in the
Toolbox'  ....Not all tools are the same (Screwdriver, wrench etc) If you
are not willing to learn how ALL these tools work and their proper
application - You are referred to as a 'Hammer Mechanic'.

>  NWS would be - also- be wise to take time to grasp some of this as
opposed to just blasting out warnings and letting others sort out the best
tool.

> The FIPS division scheme is fatally flawed for a number of reasons.
Perhaps it was designed by someone in the middle of the country where the
land is flat, there are not bodies of water and everything is rectangular?.
We looked at that a number of years ago with the thought that perhaps the
NWS Forecast Zones could be combined with unique FIPS areas....We quickly
gave up.   One of the major factors is that Joe Average has no idea what to
call the place where he is located at the moment (other than perhaps...At
Home, In the house, in the car etc)

> It's going to take more than a smart programmer to make good use of a
Polygon for use with Joe Average -  Not only does Joe not know what to call
his location, but his neighbors may call it something else.   Then there is
the fact that Joe is severely challenged by Maps because  they remind him of
science which he slept through in grade school.

> WEA has a great deal of potential for warnings - If they can figure out
how to overlay those Polygons in such a way that only the cellphones in the
impacted area go off.    But there a large number of issues here - The least
of which is that Joe Average can (and probably already has) opted out of
being alerted because of his experiences that have convinced him that the
system does not work.

> As for leading the horse to water - Obviously if he does not wish to drink
its because the horse is sick and is in need of government assistance -
and/or the water is defective in which case more government action is
clearly called for.

The bottom line is that we do a lot of things - Not because they are
worthwhile and are widely supported - but rather BECAUSE WE CAN.

With all due respect -

Clay (GOM)

(Grumpy Old Man)

__________________________________________________________
The EAS Forum Discussion List is hosted by the BWWG (Broadcast Warning Working Group). https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Feas.radiolists.net&data=02%7C01%7Carthur.botterell%40caloes.ca.gov%7C6bd4839f662d4c6e986a08d50a7ad771%7Cebf268ae303647149f69c9fd0e9dc6b9%7C0%7C0%7C636426445081709418&sdata=d4bULcFT9Wr981rACtctbbI2l1sWqZU0ECq9ArqS1dQ%3D&reserved=0
Please invite your friends to join our Forum! The sign up is at: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.radiolists.net%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Feas&data=02%7C01%7Carthur.botterell%40caloes.ca.gov%7C6bd4839f662d4c6e986a08d50a7ad771%7Cebf268ae303647149f69c9fd0e9dc6b9%7C0%7C0%7C636426445081709418&sdata=qaqWp6yESBb6G1BMA4DU85lbwR2LDTydahRmqvcUSLs%3D&reserved=0
___________________________________________________________