June 5, 2003

Present:

Terry Spring, KWPX-TV; Jim Tharp, Entercom; Clay Freinwald, Entercom; Paul Jenson, KOMO-TV; Rich Petschke, Fisher Radio Seattle; Bill Goodwin, City of Tacoma Click! Network; Ted Buehner, NWS Seattle; Don Miller, WSEM; Mark Allen, WSAB; Lowell Kiesow, KPLU-FM; Don White, KCPQ-TV/KTWB-TV; Donna DiBianco, KAOS-FM; Jesse Farmer, KAOS-FM

Don Miller reported on the Partnership for Public Warning confab in Washington DC. The PPW is still in the process of deciding what direction it will take, whether it will be web or cell based, or something else. They are also working on funding. FEMA and the Department of Justice are possibilities. AMBER will be a part of it. There were many vendors there with products that use several different ways of getting the messages to the public. Lots of companies are working on the problem, it is unclear so far what direction this is going.

According to a FCC Press Release dated May 28th, the Media Security and Reliability Council is considering recommendations to ensure effective delivery of emergency information to the public. Recommendations include that a single federal entity should be in charge, there should be a public/private partnership, local governments should coordinate with media, and the EAS system should be periodically tested and upgraded. The complete press release is available on the FCC website. The MRSC reports to Chairman Powell, and was formed by the Chairman following the events of 9/11.

The King County RCECC is almost built. Besides being a 911 center, it will be a media connection point and home to emergency management.

In Denver, the local LP1 originated a RMT, and managed to include a promo for their news as part of it. Other stations were not happy.

The minutes/summary for the last meeting were accepted. In the future, they will be posted in the EAS section of the WSAB web site.

The tab revisions are still being worked on. Mark Allen suggested a separate meeting to work on them. This will happen at a date and time to be announced at the Entercom building on Eastlake.

Changes have been made in the Kittitas County plan, and it will be forwarded back to them.

The EAS attention tones are causing problems with older weather radios. Don and Jim will be looking at the problem and doing some bench testing before any EAS boxes are reprogrammed.

There were some problems with the recent Lahar test. The state did not remove the usual RWT from their box which ran at the same time. For reasons unknown, the state originated RMT's for Kitsap and Island Counties. Pierce County, which was supposed to originate the test, had a transmitter failure, so the state originated for them, also. This was a while after the test was supposed to be run. This meant some stations ended up airing two RMT's.

Bob Wyatt in Spokane participated via email. He reports that things are going well in Eastern Washington. Robert Barfoot is getting things organized in Douglas, Chelan, Okanogan, and Grant Counties. Bob will be working on monitoring assignments over the summer. Spokane has initiated a "Missing Person Advisory" that is one step below an EAS activation. This to avoid unnecessary EAS activations.

In Wenatchee, Robert Barfoot is now the local chair. Clay will visit soon. The LP1 there has been initiating RMT's, but emergency management there will originate for June.

In Pendleton, Dennis Hull of the NWS office there has received the National Weather Service's Administrators award for his work in putting the new weather radio stations on the air in Eastern Washington.

Don Miller is receiving the NWS Mark Trail Award for his part in starting the weather radio stations in Eastern Washington.

Also at the NWS, they are getting a replacement transmitter for Capitol Peak, and are looking at sites near Bellingham and the Upper Cowlitz to fill in gaps in their coverage. Currently there are 811 weather radio stations operating nationwide. Twenty two have coverage in Washington state.

The NWS has been testing new weather radios. They are finding that they not only respond to alerts generated by the weather service, but other organizations as well. Testing will continue.

Mark Allen reported on WSAB activities. A closed circuit test of the AMBER web portal worked well. This website will allow notification of news organizations and other interested parties by email and other means. The site will have pictures or any other graphics that need to be disseminated. The stations will be able to go to the site after the alert to get more information. The site is based on the Earth911 and pets911 sites, and is run by the same non-profit organization. The project will now be moving into out of lab testing. They will be careful to not let their tests out into the real world. This could be activated as soon as mid-July.

Mark also reported on the AMBER Review Committee meeting in Spokane. They are recommending more training on the proper criteria for an alert and alternatives for events that don't meet the criteria. There will be training on the new web portal. This is a work in progress, and concerns are being addressed. They realize that this part of EAS is voluntary and stations do not have to participate.

A meeting is coming up between Oregon and Washington on how to handle cross border alerts.

The state is working on how to integrate highway signs and highway advisory radios. One question is what should the public be told to turn to. Endorsing one particular station isn't good. Complicating this is the many different sizes and types of signs in use around the state.

The testing schedule for next year will just have the times of the tests. The day and night designations have caused confusion.

The ability of TV stations to opt out of EAS testing on cable was discussed. Bill Goodwin said Click! Network can only do it on their analog signals. The digital set top box can only be programmed to switch to a different channel if there is an alert. Bill will be talking to Comcast about their capabilities. There is a question of whether it is legal for a cable system to not do a RWT to all their channels.

The NWS weather radio campaign will happen in September. They want to get more current weather radios to the public.

The next meeting will be September 4th at 9:30 AM at Camp Murray.