[SBE] EAS CAP

[Mike Langner]

Hello all!


>From the early days of EBS through EAS until my retirement a few years ago,

I was the volunteer State Chair for the New Mexico EAS System (SECC).

Your points on "every Tom, Dick, and Harry" is "right on!"

As the CE in the years before my retirement of New Mexico's State Primary
station, the LP-1, and the PEPAC station, I received a number of inquiries.

1)    Can we use the EAS to announce school snow days?

2)    If we have an emergency, could you announce that our company that
distributes oxygen to hospitals and individuals is asking all its drivers to
come in to work?

3)    Amber Alerts:  I cannot tell you how many calls I got saying "My kid
wasn't on the school bus.  Can you issue an Amber Alert?"

I won't bore you with the lengthy list.  The EAS system was codified for
Presidential Messages in time of National Disaster and for carrying tests.
All other uses were discretionary.  Which led to very smooth operating in
some areas, very rough areas in others.

For example, I hope our State's EOC can now activate the EAS.  For the years
since the inception of the EAS system through my retirement in 2004, the
State EOC did not have any (working) facilities to generate and EAS event.
In fact, through my retirement in 2004, the State EOC had no way to "speak"
over the EAS system other than calling our radio station on the telephone --
the most vulnerable communications system of all.  Towards the end of my
watch, the State did install a 2-way radio on one of our RPU channels, but
never correctly connected their EAS box to it, and never put up enough of an
antenna to provide reliable, noise-free program transmission.

The call that "took the cake," however, was the fellow that asked if we
could "closed caption" our EAS tests for the hearing impaired.  As a 50,000
watt AM station, I tongue-in-cheek told him we'd do our best to put closed
caption info just above the loudspeaker!

Yes, at least in our back yard, the system is broken!

Mike Langner, CPBE
Albuquerque, NM
_____________________________

  -----Original Message-----
  From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org]On Behalf Of Edwin
Bukont
  Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:39 PM
  To: sbe
  Subject: Re: [SBE] EAS CAP



  Cowboy

  I am not disputing your POV.  The central issue that I see, and where I
think Russ was going, is this.  Yes, Amber Alerts are important.  And so are
many other emergency messages.  But if EAS was allowed to be the sort of
service the government really wanted, two things would happen:

  1.  Station audio/video would be constantly interrupted for emergency
messages from every tom dick and harry AHJ.

  2.  There would be massive involvement of insurance agencies to determine
the messsage priority protocol and what the value is of a lowered protocal
when more lives are lost due to a message that was delayed by a higher
protocol.

  For emergency messages to work, there has to be local control of the
priority.  That seems to be where the FCC and FEMA don't agree,,,who has the
final control of priority and protocol.

  Edwin Bukont CSRE, DRB, CBNT
  V- 240.417.2475; F- 240.368.1265

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