[EAS] A rogue EAN

[Dave Kline]

These are all excellent points Clay.

I must say that recently our State Plan has seen improvement, including the addition of redundant national sources.
I just don't know why it's taken over twenty years.

There are still other things, perhaps less tangible, that might need to be looked at.
Communications with stations being one. However there are recent improvements here as well.
Some information on the state EAS website was outdated, but the site has been revamped.
Hopefully the information will also be kept up to date.
So there is progress being made here.

Of course money is an issue. I believe our SECC now has a small stipend from the state to cover basic needs.
Printing cost, web hosting and such. But for many years, things like that were paid out of pocket by an SECC chair.
He just considered it a donation to a worthy cause.
It seems odd though that even at a federal level where EAS is mandated, that they would leave funding to the whims of anyone thinking EAS is worthy of such donations.

Likewise, is the attitude of the Fed that implementing EAS is something they just hope someone will have the desire to take it on. Volunteerism can be, and is in many cases a powerful force for good. But it often can be rife with in-fighting and turf battles. People sometimes treat it as their own personal domain to do with as they will. EAS on the state and local levels often seems to be stuck between being someone's hobby and something not quite, but striving to be professional.

I've followed what's been happening in your state over the years. Washington has set itself up as the Gold Standard for how to do EAS. You and all the others responsible are to be commended.
I assume some funding helped with that? I also assume some of that is due to infrastructure that was already in place to be utilized, AND that those in charge of that infrastructure were willing to "buy in" and allow it to be used in support of EAS?
If every state SECC had the means and the ambition to do so, perhaps they could at least achieve Silver or Bronze levels in their public alerting. The amount of effort/resources required to have successful warning systems is orders of magnitude greater than the neglect or indifference it takes to render it useless. 
Kudos to those who make the effort and try to rally the resources. Shame on those who throw up roadblocks faster than a deputy sheriff at a washed out bridge.

On Sat, Dec 26, 2020 at 2:44 PM Clay Freinwald <k7cr at blarg.net> wrote:
>I'd like to respond to a couple of things you have mentioned.
>My comments start with a CF -

>Clay

>CF - Anything that is analog is in that boat these days, at all levels of
>EAS (National/State/Local) since the introduction of FEMA/IPAWS.

>PEP and Legacy EAS is in this category....and is poo-pooed by many for
>similarreasons.

>CF - Shame on your SECC for not doing its job here.    Redundancy is vital
>for emergency communications.  

>CF - One parting item - If  you would like to see how Washington State
>approaches this issue - just let me know...
>Clay

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Dave Kline - Solder Jockey
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If you only have two ducks, they will always all be in a row.
-me