May 9, 2007
Present: Terry Spring-KWPX, Mark Allen-WSAB, Bill Goodwin-Click! Net/City of Tacoma, Clay Freinwald-Entercom/Bustos/etc., Ken Dahl-Amateur Radio, Don Miller-WSEM, Jim Tharp-Bonneville, Ted Buehner-NWS Seattle
By Phone: Ed Mazuerk-Snohomish Co. EM, Kim Lausen, Dale Kloes-Whatcom County, Bob Wyatt-KSPS, Roland Robinson-Bates Technical College, Peter O'Connell-KING TV, Tom Sharp-Pierce County, Dennis Hull-NWS Pendleton, Phil Johnson-Central Puget Local Area, Kris McGowan-FCC, Art Blum-KONA
The meeting was called to order, and the previous minutes were approved.
The King County Emergency Management Director, Eric Haldeman, is leaving his position. We wish him well. He was a proponent of broadcasters being involved in emergency management.
The FCC will be holding a training session on their new Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) on Wednesday, May 23 at 1 PM EDT to 2:30. This is a voluntary program designed to allow broadcasters to report outages during major disasters and also request relief (generators, fuel shortages, access problems, etc.) to the FCC. To participate, contact John Healy at john.healy@fcc.gov.
The annual EAS meeting at NAB was well attended this year. The system we have here in Washington was discussed and mentioned. There were over 100 people in the room and more than 1600 listening on the web. It is archived at http://www.bnetstreaming.com/asx-archives/04-16-05-SBEEAS.asx
<http://www.bnetstreaming.com/asx-archives/04-16-05-SBEEAS.asx> .
The GAO has made a report to Congress on Emergency Preparedness. It discusses the limitations of the current EAS system and what might replace it. It is available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07411.pdf
<http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07411.pdf> .
In old business, the link between the North and Central Puget Sound areas has been put on hold because it will not be needed once the web-based system is in operation.
Local area chairs for some areas are still missing from Tab 2. See http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas_tab2.html
<http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas_tab2.html> . Please let Clay know if you are not on the list or if there are any corrections.
Using live event codes for testing was discussed. Some areas are okay with it, and some are very much against. The Washington SECC is against this. The FCC does allow it if there is enough advance warning. Our position is that there can never be enough advance warning and someone is not going to get the word. Also, there is a lack of detail in the crawls generated by the current EAS boxes. A real alert and a test using real event codes will generate the same crawl on TV.
There is a new local area in the Columbia Gorge which includes parts of Oregon and Washington. This was caused when the area's major station left town to move to Seattle. Supposedly it left the air in April, but there are rumors that it is still on the air.
The Inland Empire EAS plan has been updated. It includes parts of Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It has provisions for a three state AMBER alert. It is addition to the state plan. The state plan will be followed for AMBER activations. For a copy, email Bob Wyatt, bobw@ksps.org.
At the state emergency management office, 6 of the new web based interface boxes have been ordered for eastern Washington. Don will buy more when funding is available. He has been testing the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) capabilities of the new Sage ENDEC box. It has more features than the old box, for example, AES audio. It will cost around $3500.
At the WSAB, Mark reported that the legislation to make hoax AMBER alerts a felony did not make it to the floor this year, but it will be back next year. At the federal level, the First Response Broadcasters Act will aid broadcasters in an emergency by giving them priority access to fuel, water and other supplies. There will also be matching funds for upgrades such as generators and other back up systems. Personnel access to studio and transmitter sites would be decided by local authorities instead of federal officials. It looks good for passage.
The WSAB web site is being reworked. It should done soon.
Mark Allen is working on setting up an AMBER Alert meeting to go over the recent alerts.
The Central Puget Sound LACC met on April 23. It was a successful meeting. Don Miller demonstrated the new web based system. The next meeting will be July 16. Mark Allen will do an AMBER briefing.
In Pierce County, there have been some problems with the lahar warning sirens. Some of them have not gone off during testing due to programming issues with the new triggering system.
At the national Weather Service, May 6 through 12 is Severe Weather Awareness Week in the Pacific Northwest. See http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/severeawareweek.php
<http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/severeawareweek.php> . They will be testing their communications systems at this time. The new Blaine weather radio station is now connected to the NWS EAS system thanks to Jim Tharp. The weather office has been having problems receiving the SRN at their Sand Point office due to multipath. Clay has been helping them find a better spot for their roof top antenna.
There has been some concern about some of the alerts issued by the weather service. Stations are reminded that they can program their EAS boxes to pass the alerts they want to air. Ted Buehner also made the suggestion that stations consider monitoring an alternate weather radio station if there is one available. There is quite a bit of over lap between the different stations. It could make a difference in an emergency. The Olympia weather radio station is working well and receiving good reviews. The new station in the Upper Cowlitz in Lewis County is moving forward. It should be on the air by the storm season. NWS will purchase the transmitter. National Weather Radio Awareness Month will, once again, be held in September.
HazCollect is still supposed to debut this summer.
The FCC now has a new Homeland Security Bureau. EAS is under that department. This means the EAS web site has moved. See http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/eas/Welcome.html
<http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/eas/Welcome.html> .
Clay will be doing an EAS SBE Innes Workshop on June 8 in Atlanta.
The next meeting is Wednesday, July 11, at 9:30 AM at Camp Murray.
Respectfully submitted,
Terry Spring
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