[sbe-eas] Question about ETRS Form 1 requirement for stations that 100% other stations

[Mike Langner]

Yep!

You're "right on!"

Can it be even more tricky here in New Mexico?

Yep!

According to NM State Law, public service community (police, fire, etc.)
agencies' alerting officials authorized to issue EAS or IPAWS alerts must be
"cleared" through the State of New Mexico Department of Homeland Security
and Emergency Management (DHSEM).  This means if ,in a local setting, a
community official asks for EAS activation there's real conflict between
immediacy and compliance if the local official on the front line of a
potential emergency isn't approved by DHSEM.

If as is usually the case, DHSEM then issues the alert via IPAWS,  by NM
DHSEM policy there is NO voice message in the IPAWS alert.  This is clearly
a problem for equipment that doesn't have text-to-speech capability.

It's on days like this that I feel like a character out of the old Pogo
cartoon strip:  "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Our state's EAS operation used to be very locally public serving and simple.
Now it's less local and lots more complex.

And that's where we are today!

Mike/
_________________________________

 

Mike Langner
929 Alameda Road NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114-1901



(505) 898-3212 home/home office
(505) 238-8810 cell
 <mailto:mlangner at swcp.com> mlangner at swcp.com

 

From: sbe-eas <sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org> On Behalf Of Larry Wilkins
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 1:52 PM
To: SBE EAS Exchange - a mail list for discussion about the Emergency Alert
System and other emergency communication issues. <sbe-eas at sbe.org>
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] Question about ETRS Form 1 requirement for stations
that 100% other stations

 

Dave:

 

I totally agree with you.  My comments were only for FCC concerns with
national alerts.

 

I have actually seen stations use the old "grey Sage" units at the remote
locations to receive legacy type alert for state and local.  Loop through
the main audio feed from the host station. Of course, if your state is using
CAP that will not work.

 

 Larry Wilkins CPBE

Director of Engineering Services

Alabama Broadcasters Association

334-303-2525

lwilkins at al-ba.com <mailto:lwilkins at al-ba.com> 

www.al-ba.com <http://www.al-ba.com> 

  _____  

From: sbe-eas <sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org <mailto:sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org> > on
behalf of Dave Turnmire <eassbelist at gmail.com <mailto:eassbelist at gmail.com>
>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2023 2:45 PM
To: sbe-eas at sbe.org <mailto:sbe-eas at sbe.org>  <sbe-eas at sbe.org
<mailto:sbe-eas at sbe.org> >
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] Question about ETRS Form 1 requirement for stations
that 100% other stations 

 

Legal requirements are one thing.  Public service is another.  The FCC
principally is concerned with being able to receive and rebroadcast national
alerts... which aside from NPTs, we hope we never see.  But what you need to
provide good service to your audience is another topic.  If your NOC/hub is
located hundreds of miles from some of its stations, any monitoring it does
at that location may not reflect the needs of the audience of those
stations... local weather, local hazmat spills, local fires, local amber
alerts, etc.  

That would be a management decision regarding how important providing that
service is.  And it is complicated by the fact that your audience for one
transmitter in one community probably won't appreciate their favorite
program being interrupted for an emergency in a far removed community.  So
if you are feeding multiple transmitters for multiple communities widely
separated geographically, using one EAS box probably isn't practical if you
consider emergency messaging a valuable public service.  You may need to
local EAS boxes even if the rest of the programming is centralized.  So
there isn't one "right choice" on these types of things.  Just remember that
there are other EAS considerations than just complying with FCC minimums...

Dave

On 1/24/2023 12:33 PM, Larry Wilkins wrote:

Mike:

 

Hope you are doing well.  

 

The way the Commission explained it to me is if you have a main station that
feeds 100% of its programming to other transmitters and the main station has
a correctly installed and programmed EAS unit in the main program stream,
the remote transmitters do not have to install a EAS unit at their station. 

 

You may need to review your state plan to see if they issue alerts locally
(in each zone).  That may require units at the remote sites.  If they don't
then just one at the main studio is legal.

 

 Larry Wilkins CPBE

Director of Engineering Services

Alabama Broadcasters Association

334-303-2525

lwilkins at al-ba.com <mailto:lwilkins at al-ba.com> 

www.al-ba.com <http://www.al-ba.com> 


  _____  


 

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