• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

What Are Your Plans for CAP EAS?

I just had a meeting with a rep from Sage and according to him, the add-on unit won't relay a full cap message. The old EAS units have a certain amount of message buffer. If a CAP message is longer than the buffer, it will cut if off.

The add-ons are a cheap way of getting legal, but I think a lot of problems will be uncovered as (if) CAP becomes fully implemented, because your still using your old unit as a bottleneck.
 
So obviously the deadline isn't being extended (again)....

I have an LMA situation here and that station has it's own Gorman/Redlich box sitting next to another G/R for the other FM stations in the building. I'd like to standardize on the SAGE, and seem to remember a "breakout" box SAGE sold that would separate tests on multiple stations.

That wouldn't suffice for an LMA situation would it?

Or would the brand new units allow us to have 1 box for all the FM's?


thanks board!!!
 
mbrg said:
So obviously the deadline isn't being extended (again)....

I have an LMA situation here and that station has it's own Gorman/Redlich box sitting next to another G/R for the other FM stations in the building. I'd like to standardize on the SAGE, and seem to remember a "breakout" box SAGE sold that would separate tests on multiple stations.

That wouldn't suffice for an LMA situation would it?

Or would the brand new units allow us to have 1 box for all the FM's?


thanks board!!!
Click to expand...

Your thinking of the Sage MSRP (Multi-Station Relay Panel). Each MSRP gives you two additional stereo relays to switch two additional stations. You will need to program the EAS to receive the alerts for ALL of the stations attached to the EAS and the MSRP. Then, when you receive an alert (or send your weekly test), it will give you the option to select which stations it goes out on.

There are a few other companies out there making EAS relay panels too. Some are very fancy, some are home brew, it all depends on your budget.
 
There's a little issue with multiple stations that broadcasters might not realize, but what is very important. EAS units can be shared only if the stations are owned by the same entity. So, if you have your company seperated corporately or are a co-locate with another, you cannot legally share the EAS unit. I've seen people fined over this. Personally I think it's total crap, but that's the rules. There's no reason to donate 7k to the bastards per station for this sillyness. Sorry for the slight deviation from the main subject...
 
If you own rim-shots that have a common studio location, check your State plan to see if any of your signals are in a different EAS "area" and what the monitoring assignments are. FCC will not take kindly to not monitoring what's in the plan for that station. Another separate EAS box needed!
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
There's a little issue with multiple stations that broadcasters might not realize, but what is very important. Sorry for the slight deviation from the main subject...
Click to expand...

..not at all, in fact thats why I asked. Thanks.

I was brought up to think of the separating-relay-panel add ons as nice for separating for RWTs, but in the event of a real emergency you would want all stations together anyway. (?)

Was just curious if it would apply in an LMA. Best to go "by the book.."

Nowthen, we can share the same receiver(s) for the LP-1 and 2 and NWS going to the 2 boxes I assume?

tnx!
 
As far as I can tell, yes. You cannot share the add-on converter boxes for old units however. I have a friend that has three licensees in the building (owned by the same family). He wanted to get one of the cap to EAS add-ons (one only) and keep the current eas boxes. After researching it, that's a no-no. Separate is separate on this cap crap appearently. I do think the receivers are ok though from all I can tell.
 
I think there is a lot of misunderstanding going on here.

I will speak in SAGE LINGO since it is the box I am most familiar with. If you are using a SAGE EAS, you program in the region (i.e. state & counties) you are assigned by your state EAS plan. If you are using one EAS box for more than one station, you have to include ALL areas required for all stations connected to that one EAS. This will probably result in you carrying more alerts than necessary on some of your stations. If you are adding an MSRP to the Sage, it connects through one of the DB9 serial ports on the back of the Sage. The Sage will give you the ability to send an alert on just one or all of the stations.

As for automatic alerting... In the Sage programming, you have the ability to set certain alerts to automatically relay on all stations or to wait for a command. I believe there is a time limit on the wait, so if it doesn't get sent in time, it will automatically send on all stations.

As for the CAP converters... they are not as complicated as many on here want to make them sound. You program it just like the EAS unit itself. You select the state and counties you want to receive alerts for. If you are using one unit for multiple stations, you program in multiple counties. That CAP programming (state & counties) has to be the same on the EAS unit itself or it will ignore the CAP converter. Then, the CAP converter will occasionally check the IPAWS and CAP servers for any alerts for the state & counties you programmed into it. If it gets an alert, it will convert the CAP data into a NOAA-ish text-to-speech voice and attach the OLD EAS access tones to it. Your OLD EAS unit will hear these tones and fire off an old-style alert.

The only hang-up I could see with an LMA station would be the paperwork end. You'll probably be required to provide your own paperwork for EAS logs. However, I would assume you could make your own copies of the EAS logs and sign them and file them. Oh, and the other stations would have to be OK with receiving alerts for your coverage area.
 
Years ago we monitored a university station in a different state as well as the state relay.
Local station sporadic about sending tests & they were having transmitter problems( on 5th adjacent, so if they were on low power we couldn't get them). No flack when a real field inspector stopped by.

But then he was an engineer, not the glorified clerks they send out now.

We currently have 2 stations, one EAS decoder. So we monitor 2 NWS stations & two primary relays. The solution would be to get the state plan changed, but that will not be easy.
 
Around here it's a simple as asking our two state plan broadcast guys to change it. Within days it's changed on the site, and everyone is happy.
 
These folks just revised the state plan in March. Without any understanding or consideration about the pending implementation of CAP. And they still have the calls and info wrong on one my stations.
The call changed back in '04...
 
We are so lucky I guess with our guys that have taken on themselves to do the right thing for the state. I believe they even pay the bill for the website that's the official record. You know, that's part of the problem really with the whole eas system. Government mandated stuff eventually equals some poor guys in the trenches having to do things without any real resources... Some are more willing and able to get that done. The goverment demands this system yet supplies nothing but fines against stations and a lot of hot air. I'd sure like to see them divert a few of the dollars wasted per day on counting the rats in Honduras to something that is supposed to be there to save lives. It's high time our government start serving the public. We as broadcasters have for years.
 
How does one know when CAP is configured properly? We installed a Sage Digital ENDEC earlier this year, and two weeks ago, I configured it for what I am told is the address of the New York State CAP server. My question is, how do I know it is working? I see nothing in the logs to show anything received from the CAP server.
 
Would like to know that myself. FYI, CAP is now CRAP (Common Redundant Alerting Protocol). Since it is better to be CRAP compliant anyway. We are running Digital Alert Systems DASDEC II equipment here at the clusters.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom