STATE
OF WASHINGTON
EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Approved by the
Federal Communications Commission, March
3, 1997
March 11, 2009
Present: Terry Spring-KWPX; Andrew Kinney-Thurston County EM; Clay Freinwald-Entercom; Mark Murphy; Jim Dalke-Dalke Broadcast Services; Robert Purdom-A07LJ, State RACES; Mark Allen-WSAB; Don Miller-WSEM; Roland Robinson-Bates Technical College; Dick Pust-KGY Olympia; Kris McGowan-FCC; Ted Buehner-NWS Seattle
Phone: Don Ickis-WSU; Phil Johnson-CPS LAECC; Ruth Brownstein-KAOS Olympia; Tyree Wilde-NWS Portland; Bob Wyatt-KSPS Spokane; Don White-Tribune Seattle; Bill Glenn-GAP West Broadcasting Tri Cities; Merlin; Rick Succee-Bellingham; Arthur Willets-KWDK Seattle;; Ross-Lewis County; Kevin Noyes-Skagit County; Dan Goode-ESCA; Kerry Jones-NWS Spokane; Ben-Mt. Vernon; Dennis Hull-NWS Pendleton
Clay Freinwald called the meeting to order and introductions were made.
The new administration in Washington DC has nominated Craig Fugate as head of FEMA. he has done an excellent job in Florida and knows the Emergency management business well. He has been received enthusiastically in the SBE and EM circles.
Comments are being accepted on the new CAP protocol. See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/comments/index.php?wg_abbrev=emergency. The SBE is involved in this.
EAS Summit #5 will be held March 30 in Washington DC. Attendance is by invitation only. Mark Allen is working on the agenda. He has had some difficulty setting it up because of the change in administration. There will be numerous speakers and three panels.
There have been discussions with FEMA about the 180 day clock for replacing the old EAS equipment. There have been many questions but, so far, no answers. The FCC is being petitioned to provide a more reasonable time line.
The coming format change at KIRO-AM was discussed again. There will be no change in KIRO's participation and function in EAS.
There has been some discussion on the SBE EAS remailer of using real event codes for testing. It will not happen here, but it has been done in other parts of the country. To do it, a waiver needs to be obtained from the FCC. Locally, the feeling is that we test every month to make sure the system is working and that using live event codes is not necessary.
Clay Freinwald and Ted Buehner are working on a power point presentation for EAS. Phil Johnson will be doing the voice work.
Some EAS units have not been updated to reflect the new start and end times for daylight Savings Time. On these units, the automatic DST feature should be turned off and the time set manually. It is also a good time to check the time as it tends to drift on some EAS units.
The server at Hatfield and Dawson that hosts the Washington EAS remailer has been rebuilt.
King County Metro Transit is using Twitter to alert customers to transit system disruptions. See www.twitter.com/kcnews. They also have an alert blog at www.kingcounty.gov/kcnews. This is something that could be of value for emergency messages. It will be discussed at the upcoming EAS Summit.
We are still looking for someone to represent the cable industry on the SECC.
Tab 1 has been revised with many changes. Bill Glenn is the new Eastern Washington co-leader. in the Technical Committee, Jim Tharp has retired and Lowell Kiesow is busy with the KPLU studio construction. Clay has been trying to find someone from amateur radio for the position. Some local area chairs are still open.
Tab 2 is also being looked at. Some areas are missing or unknown. It will be updated soon.
The AMBER Review Committee is reviewing the charter. Silver Alerts will be integrated into the plan. New legislation that will give the WSP more control of the process will also be included.
In the last AMBER alert, the portal had a meltdown. No faxes were sent and there were problems with the email alerts. This also contributed to the EAS activation being delayed. The problems are either fixed or being worked on.
Phil Johnson proposed a protocol for unsuccessful RMT's. This will become part of Tab 11.
Tab 10 will be revised. The monitoring committee will meet April 11 in Ellensburg.
A new Tab 13 has been proposed for Emergency Alert System entry points. The information will be compiled for approval at the next meeting.
Emergency Managers should use DMO's for testing. EM's can call stations to monitor their audio during the test. Most stations program their boxes to ignore DMO's.
The National Weather Service will conduct a Hazcollect test on March 19. There will be no EAS activation, and no weather radio alerts. During the recent flooding, there were at least a dozen EAS activations because there were many rivers with major flooding. There was no RWT from the NWS last week. No explanation, yet, but it is being addressed. The Howard Hanson Dam was discussed. The dam was damaged during the recent flooding, and could cause flooding in South King County if it failed. Also, it's capacity is now reduced so more water could be released down stream. An EAS alert is possible under either condition. The weather radio station that serves the Tri Cities is moving. The NWS is looking for a new site.
At the Washington State Emergency Management office, Don Miller has produced a Power Point presentation on the Common Alert Protocol. There are many advantages to the new system. It is supposed to be operational by June 30. Don is still working on the text to speech audio. The box has trouble with foreign and Indian names.
The FCC is still short staffed in Seattle. Kris McGowan is planning on hiring when her budget allows.
Amateur Radio is willing to help. The 11th annual Communications Academy will be held April 4th and 5th at South Seattle Community College. It is designed for Ham Radio operators, or anyone else interested in Emergency Communication as a professional or volunteer. For more information, and registration, go to http://www.commacademy.org.
The next SECC meeting will be held May 13 at 9:30 AM at WSEM at Camp Murray.
Terry Spring
Chief Engineer
KWPX TV/DT
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