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EAS

O

oldiesstation

This important message from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is brought to you as a service of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). On November 9, 2011, at 2 p.m. (EST), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the FCC are going to conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). All broadcasters who participate in EAS must participate in the nationwide EAS test.


Anyone else get this exciting email today???
 
The CAP system. What happens in an emergency, the net goes down, no CAP signal?
 
It would be extremely hard to bring down the entire internet because it's not centered in one place. You will still be required to monitor your regular sources (NOAA, LP1, LP2, etc). If your internet is down, but the internet at the local LP1 is just fine, they will get the alert and you will receive it from them.
 
During the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 I was on usenet and noticed that my email was slow to nonexistent.

I expect the same level of service as the next disaster unfolds.
 
We just installed our new CAP capable EAS unit. In fact, today, we had our first Required Monthly Test. It worked. But then our old TFT 911 worked too...

The wild card is the Internet feed. At present, there doesn't seem to be any way to test that, but I can assure you that the EAS box is highly visible on our network which connects to the Internet. It should work. The fly in the ointment is when there is a natural disaster in my area; the very first thing to quit working is our Internet connection. Because of that we have two ISP's, but I've seen occasions when neither worked. That is going to be a problem.

I may be wrong, but I suspect the "bad guys" are very capable of bringing the Internet to a standstill, at least, in its present state. A really deadly virus could really mess things up. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't have a lot of faith in the new system. The old one didn't work all that well, and this seems no better.
 
And, the root of the problem still is the federal government who won't live up to their end of the deal and provide a decent backbone path for national EAS. I agree on the interent being one of the first things to go. It's likely it's going to get pretty screwed up in the event of a disaster. Secondly, are we ever even going to see federal CrAP servers? Who knows... If it works as good as the last system has so far, it may be better then don't have any. At least they couldn't pin the failure on broadcasters, their seemingly favorite kicking dog these days.
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
And, the root of the problem still is the federal government who won't live up to their end of the deal and provide a decent backbone path for national EAS. I agree on the interent being one of the first things to go. It's likely it's going to get pretty screwed up in the event of a disaster..
Click to expand...

If not down from the disaster.. It will become laggy from all those facebooking, tweeting, blogging about 'said' disaster...
 
oldiesstation said:
This important message from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is brought to you as a service of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). On November 9, 2011, at 2 p.m. (EST), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the FCC are going to conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). All broadcasters who participate in EAS must participate in the nationwide EAS test.


Anyone else get this exciting email today???
Click to expand...

I have made preparations and enabled a bypass to all my EAS boxes for when the "test" goes down in flames and the boxes won't release the program line. We only need one missed EOM for this to turn into a major swine fornication. And I want to be prepared for it. The biggest oxymoron known to man is the phrase "I"m from the government and I'm here to help".
 
It seems like your damned if you do , damned if you don't. Some of the same people who bitch about the fact that the nationwide alert has never been tested are now bitching about the nationwide alert being tested. Everyone involved is aware of the limitations of the internet and the IPAWS folks are working on solutions. So far no-one has come up with a solution that doesn't have some faults, thus the test of the PEP distribution system. No internet in that to bog things down. When the CAP is fully implemented, the PEP system will still be in place. Properly implemented there will be multiple servers, nationally, regionally and state wide that will help resolve some of the issues with internet distribution. Some states are already utilizing Satelite for EAS and that will be another distribution method that will be utilized under CAP. Don't forget the Alert Aggregator being setup by FEMA. For those who think they know it all, I'd suggest checking out the IPAWS site at http://www.fema.gov/ipaws. There is a lot more to the new EAS sytem than just an internet hookup.
 
So be it. Based on their previous performance, I'm not impressed. It's going to be a C.F. all over again, this time a more complicated one. And, as for the national test, it should have happened years ago. It would have proven how inept our federal goverment is at disseminating emergency information. That's why they haven't bothered to this point. Now that the new complicated system is about to come online, they want proof the old system is flawed. Enter the national test. 2000+ per station group or more later, we are still going have the same old epic failure in a new shiny box with a ethernet plug on it. The real problem isn't the technology, but the lack of real organization at the feds. The only real use for the whole EAS system is weather and local evacs when the local EOC people are awake...
 
Saturday, 21 February 1971. The regular civilian guy named Ford calls in sick to the NORAD combat operations center. His replacement loads the wrong punched tape and sends out an actual EBS alert. Half the stations in the country ignored it or didn't even see it. Most of the rest saw it and held off because it was the regular test time. A few ran it. Even with as simple a system as we had back then, it was end operators that mostly failed. The new system will depend on the preparation of the end user, i.e. you in the radio, cable and TV stations. If you are not ready it will fail. What's the old hack, Failing to plan is planning to fail? I'll cry no tears nor blame the system if you fail due to a negative attitude. p.s, My hangover was as Bad as Ford's from the Jaycee party we were both at the night before.
 
Actually, I'm quite prepaired for it. I have been for years. I have a direct feed from the NPR bird. I don't really trust that "the system" as provided in the normal plan via the normal daisychain will ever make it where it needs to go. So, I took it apon myself to do the right thing for our state and hook mine up. I do take this whole deal very seriously. That's why I'm critical of the way the feds do things. We spend money and time at the local level doing things correctly for the most part yet the feds keep creating more B.S. with little results to show for it. It's typical of them. No, if there's a national activation, I'll be getting mine on the air, and whomever is monitoring me, etc. Thank you NPR for taking the bull by the horns years ago and doing the right thing when no one else seemed to care.
 
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