[EAS] Improving IPAWS and EAS

[Sean Donelan]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2018, Adrienne Abbott wrote:
> It's been my experience that while many stations won't carry weather-related
> EAS activations, most will re-broadcast non-weather activations. I'm
> speaking of the stations in my Operational Area, whether they are live,
> automated or a combination of both. This also applies to both stations with

Nationwide data isn't available how different EAS Participants 
actually participate with non-mandatory alerts, i.e. EAS, local news 
program insert or nothing, so its difficult to identify if there are 
regional or state-level differences. It would be great if there was 
better data available.

I haven't lived in Nevada, so I don't have experience with Nevada's alert 
practices beyond staying at nice Las Vegas hotels. I have lived in 
several other parts of the country. There are noticable differences not 
only in the weather, but also local emergency alert practices by both 
emergency officials and broadcasters. My experience is non-scientific 
survey by monitoring over-the-air broadcasts in different cities.

The few times when there is data, is when something goes wrong. From the 
FCC report on Hawaii's false missile alert:

Off business hours, and early morning Saturday staffing levels.

Broadcasters relayed either CDW and/or CEM: 31 out of 61 stations (51%)
Hawaii SECC reported 30 respondents did not have their equipment set to 
forward CDWs or CEMs, and did not deliver either message automatically or 
manually.

Cable systems relayed either CDW and/or CEM: 1.5 out of 2 (75%) - 
Spectrum Cable said it didn't send either alert to analog cable systems 
and only the All Clear (CEM) to digital cable systems - that's the 0.5
Hawaii Telecom (cable) said it relayed both CDW and CEM - that's the 1.0

Direct Broadcast Satellite (Dish and Directv) - Local alert pass through 
only on local channels, only national alerts on national channels: 
Hawaii alert on 6? out of 300? channels (?2%)

I don't know the pay tv market mix in Hawaii. Nationally its about 1/3 
satellite and 2/3 cable system, with lots of cable cutting of both.

Sirius XM - No service in Hawaii, Only national alerts elsewhere (N/A%)

Cellular providers both WEA Alert and/or All Clear: 4 out of 4 (100%) - 
however many individuals reported not receiving an alert on their phones, 
lack of local WEA monitoring meant there was no way to diagnose WEA 
compliants.

NOAA Weather Radio in Hawaii didn't carry either the Alert or All Clear 
(unless it was manual, I didn't find any record in the NOAA database). I 
don't know if NWR would carry an actual alert, duplicate alert or no 
alert in case of an actual attack.

This is about the same level of broadcaster EAS participation as the 
Arbitron survey in 2004 of radio program directors. The Arbitron survey 
found 52% of stations relayed one or more storm EAS alerts. 81% of 
program directors said they ran special programming or changed formats 
during hurricanes.

No, public alerts and warnings are not just a broadcaster thing.  There 
are lots of silos.

Things I learned this week - In Japan, the Pokemon Go mobile augmented 
reality video game put weather warnings on the screen when people try
to play the game outdoors in central Japan due to the massive flooding and 
mudslides. Apparently this was in response to criticism last year when 
Pokemon Go "released" several high-value creatures in the middle of a 
typhoon. I didn't know people still played Pokemon Go on their phones.