[EAS] EAN redux - FEMA

[Dave Kline]

SAGE provides the following notice in their internal document (posted here yesterday) that outlines possible steps. Up front the document gives a disclaimer:
 
"These instructions are for example and testing purposes only, as part of creating this template, and to provide many examples of different steps to process EAS messages."

Apparently, according to the internal document (page 32) any attempt to abort/cancel/interrupt by "approved" means, an EAN (from the front panel) will present a warning that it is a federal crime to abort if the alert is valid.

Of course, central to this discussion is what constitutes "valid?" Does the originating source (FEMA for example) being valid make the alert valid even if the message contained within is not? Again, questions we never thought we'd be asking.

If you proceed after the warning you are met with another screen asking if you are sure you want to do this. If you say YES, it looks as if an EOM will be transmitted and your station's
programming returned to air. This method may or may not work when logged in to the GUI.

The document goes on to describe a less elegant method on page 34. Essentially to reboot the ENDEC and send an EOM. They go on to describe, in Step 4, a CD that one would play over the air to generate an EOM. I thought recordings of EAS signaling was not allowed? If an EOM is all it takes to clear an EAN for downstream stations, then why not just issue an RWT after the box reboots?

With GUI access there does not appear to be a REBOOT function. So doing that remotely will be more difficult. If one were so inclined, and I'll mention that this comes with it's own caveates, one could perform a software reload to the same version. An upgrade normally causes a reboot automatically, but will it if trying to "upgrade" to the same version? Probably more fraught with potential problems than it's worth?

Finally, the internal document includes consulting with the station's EAS manager before doing any of this. I would not take it upon myself to bail on a seemingly valid EAN without authorization from the chief operator or someone in management. And then only after being certain (and possibly having it in writing) that they understand the risk of a potential citation and fine.

On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 4:38 PM Allen Sherrill <kj4mdg at gmail.com> wrote:
>The default EAN alert filter, that is already set up in Sage units, is set to the highest priority.  According to the manual, alerts at that priority level cannot be aborted while being relayed.

>I doubt the priority setting is something that could be changed on the fly (while an EAN is in progress).  If you wanted to make EAN alerts capable of being aborted, I believe you would have to set the filter to a lower priority.  At least that's how I'm reading it.

>Allen Sherrill

>On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 12:57 PM Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:

>>Sage documented how to abort an EAN in a release note after the 2011
>>national test audio was messed up

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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