[EAS] False EM alarm in HI

[Rich Parker]

What I mean by political is money to make things work.

NWS is the number 1 user of EAS almost anywhere you go - yet they are
continually short changed in terms of adequate funding. For example,
it should be possible for a robust emergency alerting system to use
'polygons' such as NWS has been trying to implement. In Alaska, and
I'm sure other areas, the EAS FIPS areas bear almost no relationship
to actual areas which have distinct geographic boundaries that are
meaningful. NWS 'can' do this, but nothing in the current 'prescribed'
EAS systems allow for this granular targeting. They are constantly
struggling to provide resources, repair (or even obtain) transmitters,
and the like. And to this day, even though they are (as I said) the #1
user of EAS, they are not fully CAP compliant, nor can they issue EAN
type messaging.

As I understand it, WEA is somewhat better in this regard, but there
is apparently an enormous 'gulf' between WEA and EAS - and if you look
at the HI incident you can see this is true - how is it even possible
for an alert (real or accidental) to only go out to a 'portion' of the
system. I believe that it made it to various WEA centers (as indicated
by folks getting texts on their phones), and to cable head ends (as
indicated by reports of alerts appearing on a soccer game, etc.) but
as far as we know, did not hit broadcast facilites - though this can
be confirmed later by looking at logs - it may have been as simple as
there not being an 'event code' in boxes for 'incoming missiles'.....

It is, as it is now, a virtually stitched together 'Frankenstein's
Monster' that reflects more the silos and commercial interests of
vendors and sectors with competing goals, and not an overarching
Emergency Alerting System which well serves the public.

-rp

On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 11:01 PM, Barry Mishkind <barry at oldradio.com> wrote:
<snip.
>>This is a truly botched system, which can only be fixed by political,
>>not technical solutions.
>
>         Maybe this will be a catalyst  ... but given the
>         way Congress works, we may be dismayed
>         if political "fixes" are applied....
>
>         This may be the "be careful what you hope
>         for" ... at least until the industry comes up
>         with - and cares about - a plan that is more
>         than superficial.
>
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