[EAS] The words we use

[Ed Czarnecki]

No flames or bombs coming from over here.  But this whole talk of cargo pants, etc is *soooooo* 1990s (from a fashion perspective).

The EAS vendors really didn't touch the cargo pants per se.  We came to a fairly collegial discussion about which pockets in the pants needed to be used to comply with the Part 11 rules, and that fostered some decent level of interoperability across vendors and implementations.

So actually, there are fairly few differences among vendors in terms of how to utilize the CAP cargo pants.  From this perspective, we're all wearing cargo pants the same way, and reaching into the same pockets.  That in and of self is a modest success IMHO.

Differences among gas vendors stem from more fundamental ambiguities within part 11.  So any problems with the "cargo pants" really stem from ill-defined requirements within part 11, not CAP itself.  Think about it ... all the issues about the definition of immediacy, usage of time, etc... are all within part 11, not CAP - and in part due to bilateral discussions between government and some of the vendors - we're different manufacturers. Somewhat different opinions at different points of time, and some manufacturers did not even get the benefit of an opinion while others did.

There is an expression about trying to put a saddle on a cow (not to quote Stalin too much).  In a lot of ways that's how retrofitting CAP to fit Part 11 is like.  Or maybe part 11 is the out-of-style style bell bottom jeans, if CAP the questionably fashionable elasrltic cargo pants.  We're trying to take something with a lot of pockets and utility (CAP), and retrofitted back to something with almost no pockets and zero flexibility (FSK EAS). 

Still, when all the cargo pants are gone, it's good feeling to know that the bell bottom jeans are still there in the back of the drawer.

Have we beaten the analogy to death yet?

Edward Czarnecki, Ph.D.
Senior Director - Strategic and Government Affairs
Monroe Electronics Inc. / Digital Alert Systems

ed.czarnecki at monroe-electronics.com
585-765-2254 | fax 585-765-9330
Reston VA | Lyndonville NY

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From: Richard_Rudman
bwwg at gmail.com>
radiolists.net>
radiolists.net>
bwwg at gmail.com>

The short form for the premises I am starting from for this post are that we have:

1) CAP --a vetted international standard subset of XML
2) Part 11-- seen by EAS subject experts as non-specific about important parts of equipment capabilities, implementation and compliance
3) IPAWS [Integrated Public Alert and Warning System], a wonderful acronym for a fully fleshed concept that does not yet exist

I did see Harold's Cargo Pants analogy a while ago.

Now, I have to apologize in advance for taking this thread in a different direction -- cargo pants standards.

The problem I have found with cargo pants is that sometimes you forget which pocket you put things in unless you have a system and the maybe even have labels for the pockets. There is no standard for cargo pants from different cargo pants makers.

Here we get into a potentially sensitive EAS area. The EAS box industry designing their unique brands of cargo pants (EAS boxes) and never really got together to agree on common standards on where their pockets are located, what size the pockets are, how they are fastened so things won't drop out and what should go in each pocket. Some even have pockets for things that no one else has pockets for.

This was an unavoidable consequence of the FCC never requiring commonality on how EAS CAP boxes should operate, be talked to, talk to us, and, to a certain extent, how boxes parse and deal with what they receive.

Important Anti-Flame Note: I am in no way making judgements on relative merits of the EAS box manufacturers' implementations. All of them in my personal view have their own strengths. I will now go off to an undisclosed secure and bombproof location to await comments from the voices of the EAS box industry and others who post on this list.

Richard

>On Sep 6, 2017, at 12:50 PM, Botterell, Arthur at CalOES <Arthur.Botterell at CalOES.ca.gov> wrote:

>....that Harold Price recently described CAP as a pair of cargo pants, wherein decisions still sometimes must be made as to what to put in which pocket.

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