[EAS] Sideline View of State Plan Acceptance

[Rod Zeigler]

I have been reading the articles regarding the latest round of State 
Plan reviews and acceptances by the FCC and something stuck out to me.

Apparently it was not generally known that the FCC's primary focus is on 
National Alerts. State and lower level alerts are a second class adjunct.
This information has been in the rules and regs since forever and it 
really makes putting together a State level plan much easier.
You satisfy the 2 independent, OTA, source requirement for EAN's first. 
You then work on the State and lower level alerting which can usually be 
solved by internet alerting with the legacy LP system, if you still have 
one, as a State secondary.

I have a problem with those that are putting Sirius/XM in LP 1's 
thinking that this would satisfy the "second source" requirement. It 
does for the LP 1, but not for anyone else. Sirius/XM receivers are 
ridiculously cheap compared to most broadcast equipment and having every 
participant use one of these, or Premiere or NPR,  is a simple way to 
fulfill the "second source" requirement and it overcomes the single 
point of failure that is inherent in LP and other systems.

I close with saying that if you can rid yourself of any or all "Daisy 
Chain" schemes in your State Plan, do so. Life will be much easier for 
everyone, and the EAS system will work better.

Rod. SECC Chair and NPWS program participant (Ret.)