On my way home while I was driving through the tornadic thunderstorm on I-75/71 in Boone county I was listening to 700WLW which for the first time I have ever heard in the last 7 years actually activated and relayed the EAS warning by the NWS. My question is why is this not the standard in Cincinnati for all stations, especially those which are mostly or completely automated? Granted WLW does a great job of providing the much needed storm information but why not activate the EAS in cases such as the weather we've had the last couple of days, in addition to the warnings the news department provides?
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Storm warnings/EAS
- Thread starter titoisradio
- Start date
M
Matlock
Guest
It is standard, in fact it's FCC required.
1360 was playing them like crazy. I can't vouch for the others, but I have heard it break in a lot over the top of songs or talk shows.
1360 was playing them like crazy. I can't vouch for the others, but I have heard it break in a lot over the top of songs or talk shows.
WLW is the LP-1 (Local Primary-1) EAS station for Cincinnati. I'm sure they've done this all along. You must activate to notify and inform the EAS network that's monitoring your station when you're the LP-1, unless I'm missing something in what you're saying, Tito. Dozens of stations monitor WLW either as a primary or backup in the EAS network. They're on our presets in Dayton, though we also monitor the SP-1 (State Primary-1) station, which is WNCI/Columbus, WTUE (Dayton's LP-2) and WIMT in Lima to mention a few.
By the way, you may be interested to know that, because of the extreme rash of storms in the region last night, I was informed we received some 200 EAS activations on our monitors. (No joke!) Our producers just about got writers cramp and went through a box of ink pens trying to keep the logs straight...
By the way, you may be interested to know that, because of the extreme rash of storms in the region last night, I was informed we received some 200 EAS activations on our monitors. (No joke!) Our producers just about got writers cramp and went through a box of ink pens trying to keep the logs straight...
Jason Roberts said:
Just saying its something I notice, they usually just hit the weather sounder and give the information without activating the EAS, such as this morning with the Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. Today at 6pm was the first warning I've heard actually delivered via EAS. Does WLW only activate it for Tornado warnings? I know when the tornado warning was issued for Boone County yesterday afternoon I heard no EAS warning though was listening on XM173 which would have dead air where the EAS blurbs would be. Also I have noticed that B105, Q102, WEBN, Kiss, etc do not activate their EAS for severe storms.
Also is it an FCC requirement that EAS warnings be relayed? I know in 1996 when it was being implemented there was a question owners were having in KY on what the requirements were beyond actually buying the equipment and having at least two monitoring sources.
We lost power at 6:50 PM, just before the Reds game started.
There was no easy way to get info at all. I don't listen to much else but 550 or 700. What station has live emergency weather information available during Reds games?
I had an old hand held battery TV but its lost in some drawer somewhere. I guess it won't work after Feb 09 anyway.
I was thinking of buying a battery operated radio which also receives TV (2-13)...but won't that become useless in '09 as well?
There was no easy way to get info at all. I don't listen to much else but 550 or 700. What station has live emergency weather information available during Reds games?
I had an old hand held battery TV but its lost in some drawer somewhere. I guess it won't work after Feb 09 anyway.
I was thinking of buying a battery operated radio which also receives TV (2-13)...but won't that become useless in '09 as well?
titoisradio said:
To my knowledge its a requirement to have functioning EAS Equipment but not a requirement to broadcast all the messages, just log them. I think National Alerts and Tornado warnings, and flood warnings may fall under the "must pass thru" catagory. (It's been awhile though since I read the EAS handbook) I don't believe the FCC says you must relay all thunderstorm warnings etc... some do as pubic service (a lot of stations will have the 3rd input on their EAS decoder hooked up to a weather radio to pull the NWS feed) --- I know my Weather radio here in Central Ohio was going off every 5-15 mins with new watches, warnings etc... and its only programmed for about 8 counties.
K
kyscott
Guest
xmusicmatt said:
The only thing you are required to relay is the monthly test and Emergency Action Notification messages. That's all. Weather alerts are not required by law to be relayed. CFR 47 chapter 1 part 11 outlines the EAS rules. If you had read the rules, which are readily available on the FCC's website, you would have seen that tornado warnings and flood warnings are not in the "must pass thru" catagory.
WLW has been monitored by other area radio stations for decades going back to the E.B.S. notifications. For a period prior to last night's Reds broadcast, WLW was off the air for awhile. I was thinking when that happened just how many stations are hearing alerts because of that?
Yes, just because it was the first time you heard it on WLW doesn't mean it was the first time they did it.
This system has been in place for several years, and all stations have no control over it. EAS literally hijacks the station's signal, broadcasts the emergency message and then gives the signal back to the station.
What's odd, and a little unsettling, is that the system lags several minutes behind the original emergency alert. Several times, I've heard a station interrupt programming with a live announcer passing on a tornado sighting or severe storm alert. Then they go back to programming, and then a few minutes later the EAS system kicks in and broadcasts the identical automated version. So obviously the stations are able to get the message on the air faster than the EAS system. With something like a funnel cloud, these delayed few minutes on stations that don't have a live on-air staff can be seriously dangerous.
This system has been in place for several years, and all stations have no control over it. EAS literally hijacks the station's signal, broadcasts the emergency message and then gives the signal back to the station.
What's odd, and a little unsettling, is that the system lags several minutes behind the original emergency alert. Several times, I've heard a station interrupt programming with a live announcer passing on a tornado sighting or severe storm alert. Then they go back to programming, and then a few minutes later the EAS system kicks in and broadcasts the identical automated version. So obviously the stations are able to get the message on the air faster than the EAS system. With something like a funnel cloud, these delayed few minutes on stations that don't have a live on-air staff can be seriously dangerous.
qcityguy said:
Actually it depends on the setup, the station has the option to run EAS in manual or automatic mode.
As far as the delay yes it does happen. When I was at WSTO we were a primary EAS station and we would run the EAS in manual mode. Often we would get the warning info off the wire and activate the EAS before we received the EAS notification from the NWS. The EAS equipment that we used was not easy to issue warnings, especially if multiple counties were effected. So we would issue the warning first on air, then activate the EAS. Also what was bad was if while we were programming the EAS for a warning, another warning came in we'd have to wait for that warning to be complete then have to start the process all over.
Also the EAS saved my life in a 2000 tornado in Owensboro, KY as it interupted my cable system at the time and gave me the alert (which was relayed from our station) in plenty of time to take cover.
Honestly the EAS rules need to be more consise and uniform and mandated by one federal system rather than 50 individual state EAS plans. Also the equipment needs to be more user friendly (maybe it is as its been 7 years since I've used an EAS).
kyscott said:
sorry its been awhile since I read them (like 1999) ... It may have been a state plan somewhere I read that "suggested" relay of the T-Warnings and F-Warnings. It's been so long I can't remember.
I'll totally agree stations have wide latitude on when they forward EAS alerts, rules-wise. And, of course, the rules also state that EAS participation is entirely voluntary. In Dayton, we don't trip EAS for things like Flood Watches...or even Flood Warnings. (Flash Flood Warnings, of course, are different situations...we activate for those).
But, I'm not arguing rules here. I'm speaking from a perspective of a higher rule, you know...that one that says "serve the public interest, convenience and necessity." Some of us...and a few broadcast companies, too...still care about that one, despite what some of you may think.
And, if a station is going to take on the responsibility of being the "LP-1" for a particular city, it seems like, in a situation such as a Tornado Warning, where life and limb can depend on timely notification of an emergency, tripping EAS for that only seems as though it's in the "public interest, convenience and necessity".
So, it wouldn't surprise me that a station such as WLW would trip EAS for a Tornado Warning in their area. I would assume they do that based on a plan there at the station. Their plan might differ from ours, but they know their area best.
And yes, another poster is correct. NWS can be very slow at times, in getting warnings out. I've gotten warnings on the air ahead of EAS, too.
But, I'm not arguing rules here. I'm speaking from a perspective of a higher rule, you know...that one that says "serve the public interest, convenience and necessity." Some of us...and a few broadcast companies, too...still care about that one, despite what some of you may think.
And, if a station is going to take on the responsibility of being the "LP-1" for a particular city, it seems like, in a situation such as a Tornado Warning, where life and limb can depend on timely notification of an emergency, tripping EAS for that only seems as though it's in the "public interest, convenience and necessity".
So, it wouldn't surprise me that a station such as WLW would trip EAS for a Tornado Warning in their area. I would assume they do that based on a plan there at the station. Their plan might differ from ours, but they know their area best.
And yes, another poster is correct. NWS can be very slow at times, in getting warnings out. I've gotten warnings on the air ahead of EAS, too.
J
Josh_Cols
Guest
Jason Roberts said:
My question about EAS is you say you monitor WIMT out of Lima, WNCI for Statewide, etc; how does that work? Is their a sub-carrier or is their some sort of satellite link for the EAS? Surely you can't monitor WNCI over the air. Just wondering kind of how the EAS receiver works. Your producers have to manually write down and log every EAS event?
A EAS story kinda, I was out in Colorado when that tornado we all no doubt saw on the news hit Windsor. I know a guy who lives in Windsor who was listening to KYGO at his house (he was off work getting ready to drive to the airport and go to the Indy 500 over Memorial Day weekend), the Denver country giant which is pretty much live and local 24x7, and they were warning of the impending tornado before the Regent stations that have their studios in downtown Windsor and the other local cluster, and Denver is 50-60 miles away. It would be like K99 breaking in and warning of a tornado in Auglaize or Allen County before WIMT in Lima or WCSM in Celina. Anyways he heard the warning on KYGO, turned on another station heard nothing, but took the KYGO warning serious enough, he went to his basement and less then a minute later his house was pretty much gone. Had it not been for KYGO's mid day guy breaking in, he probably wouldn't be here.
T
The Beave
Guest
I do not know about Cinci, but in Tucson, Phoenix, and Grand Forks, ND we all had a direct Phone Line to The Local and State EOC's (Emergency Ops Center) Half the time the EAS would be fired by the Local -1 Immiadiately after the phone call and some would break in also immediately. The EAS in most markets and stations can monitor 3 sources at once. Usually the Local or State Primary assignment, and secondary will fire instantaniously if the 2nd in line is programmed to interrupt immiadiately, the 3rd is usually the NOAA's SAME Frequency a.k.a. your county specific NOAA Weather radio.
It takes time to kick out and release a tornado warning. (about 3-5 minutes) Read your state broadcasting assoc. paraphanalia online and the EAS info on the NAB online site.
There it is in a nutshell.
Right now the EAS has been getting alot of discussion nationally on many forums.
It takes time to kick out and release a tornado warning. (about 3-5 minutes) Read your state broadcasting assoc. paraphanalia online and the EAS info on the NAB online site.
There it is in a nutshell.
Right now the EAS has been getting alot of discussion nationally on many forums.
Josh_Cols said:
WNCI is a 175,000 Watts from High atop of the Nationwide Tower in Columbus. WNCI gets out pretty far through most of central ohio. On a trip to Columbus coming from Indiana on 70 i can start to faintly get WNCI west of Dayton once you can shake WGNR's 50,000 wats out of Anderson IN last grasp for its 50,000 watts. On 71 from Cincinnati you start getting WNCI bout Xenia if i recall one trip from Cincy to Columbus. and a trip to cleveland going 71 from columbus i almost had WNCI to Ashtubula
T
The Beave
Guest
MikeStandardsFromIndiana said:
Mike For a second I thought you were kidding... About The ERP of WNCI - Folks I researched this.. He's serious.
Horizontal Effective Radiated Power 175,000 Watts
Vertical Effective Radiated Power 105,000 Watts
Josh,
To answer your question, the EAS Encoder/Decoder sits and "monitors" the air signals of the stations fed into it. Yes, the regular air signals. We just feed normal radios into it.
If it detects EAS tones on any of the stations fed into it, it automaticly begins to follow directions programmed into it for the type of alert that is being received. You can program the machine to air or not air the alerts depending on what it is. If you want to air tornado warnings and not thunderstorm warnings, you can set it to do that. Most stations I know of pass Tornado, Flash Flood Warnings, Amber alerts, and 911 phone outages.
The FCC requires you keep an "EAS log". Some stations just keep the printouts from the EAS machine. Some stations will keep a written log in addition to the printouts, just to be safe.
To answer your question, the EAS Encoder/Decoder sits and "monitors" the air signals of the stations fed into it. Yes, the regular air signals. We just feed normal radios into it.
If it detects EAS tones on any of the stations fed into it, it automaticly begins to follow directions programmed into it for the type of alert that is being received. You can program the machine to air or not air the alerts depending on what it is. If you want to air tornado warnings and not thunderstorm warnings, you can set it to do that. Most stations I know of pass Tornado, Flash Flood Warnings, Amber alerts, and 911 phone outages.
The FCC requires you keep an "EAS log". Some stations just keep the printouts from the EAS machine. Some stations will keep a written log in addition to the printouts, just to be safe.
Sorry...I've been away from this thread for a few days.
Josh, what everyone is saying is right. The right antenna on the top of your building and it's pretty darned easy to pick up WNCI in Dayton and WIMT in Lima, too. All of which are fed into the EAS receiver.
You see, EAS is part of a statewide network. In our case, K-99.1 (WHKO) is the Local Primary 1 (consider us the "lead" station) for the West Central Ohio Operational EAS Area. Other stations in the area monitor WHKO as we will be the primary station disseminating information in the event of an EAS Activation.
We monitor WNCI, which is the "State Primary-1" station. In the event of a statewide emergency, the Governor would activate EAS through WNCI and we would, obstensibly, take the feed from them. We monitor other stations, too, including WIMT.
And yes, we take weather warnings very seriously. Though programming may be syndicated or voicetracked on our stations at some points in the day, we have a live operator on duty 24/7/365. That operator is trained to get the word out on all of the stations when warnings exist. If EAS is activated, that operator makes sure the activation is properly forwarded. If things get too dicey for that operator to handle by himself or herself...all it takes is a phone call, and several people (who live within 10 minutes of the station) can be counted on to come running. The operators are all trained on EAS procedures and handle the keeping of the slips of paper that come out of the EAS receivers for each station, as well as handle the "station log" for each station on which we log the EAS messages.
We'll get warnings on...and don't think for a minute to go wall to wall with Newscenter 7 if the need exists.
Oh yes: since some people wonder how much "training" some broadcast stations give their board-ops or producers: while I can't speak for every company, you cannot go to work in our facility and have anything whatsoever to do with the transmitters or EAS without taking and passing a written test that is based upon the old "Third Class Radiotelephone License with Broadcast Endorsement" test. If you are going to be anywhere near the transmitter controls, passing that test is a condition of employment.
Josh, what everyone is saying is right. The right antenna on the top of your building and it's pretty darned easy to pick up WNCI in Dayton and WIMT in Lima, too. All of which are fed into the EAS receiver.
You see, EAS is part of a statewide network. In our case, K-99.1 (WHKO) is the Local Primary 1 (consider us the "lead" station) for the West Central Ohio Operational EAS Area. Other stations in the area monitor WHKO as we will be the primary station disseminating information in the event of an EAS Activation.
We monitor WNCI, which is the "State Primary-1" station. In the event of a statewide emergency, the Governor would activate EAS through WNCI and we would, obstensibly, take the feed from them. We monitor other stations, too, including WIMT.
And yes, we take weather warnings very seriously. Though programming may be syndicated or voicetracked on our stations at some points in the day, we have a live operator on duty 24/7/365. That operator is trained to get the word out on all of the stations when warnings exist. If EAS is activated, that operator makes sure the activation is properly forwarded. If things get too dicey for that operator to handle by himself or herself...all it takes is a phone call, and several people (who live within 10 minutes of the station) can be counted on to come running. The operators are all trained on EAS procedures and handle the keeping of the slips of paper that come out of the EAS receivers for each station, as well as handle the "station log" for each station on which we log the EAS messages.
We'll get warnings on...and don't think for a minute to go wall to wall with Newscenter 7 if the need exists.
Oh yes: since some people wonder how much "training" some broadcast stations give their board-ops or producers: while I can't speak for every company, you cannot go to work in our facility and have anything whatsoever to do with the transmitters or EAS without taking and passing a written test that is based upon the old "Third Class Radiotelephone License with Broadcast Endorsement" test. If you are going to be anywhere near the transmitter controls, passing that test is a condition of employment.
T
The Beave
Guest
listner1 said:
I thought I had already made that clear.. I guess just like music... redundancy doens't hurt a bit.
A
AugC
Guest
and likewise....we monitor WHKO WKXA and WDFM.
what signal HKO has! NCI can be recieved only during a good tropo....we have WTGN 97.7 right down the road!
WKXA and WDFM. what signal HKO has! NCI can be recieved only during a good tropo....we have WTGN 97.7 right down the road!
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