STATE
OF WASHINGTON
EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Approved by the
Federal Communications Commission, March
3, 1997
May 13, 2009
Present: Terry Spring-KWPX; Ken Dahl-Amateur Radio; Roy Benavente-WSEM; Phil Johnson-CPS LECC; Don Miller-WSEM; Roland Robinson-Bates Technical College; Ted Buehner-NWS Seattle; Mark Allen-WSAB; Clay Freinwald-EAS
Phone: Dan Good-ESCA; Bob Jacobson-Whatcom County; Tom Sharp-Pierce County; Mark Shepard-City Of Seattle; Arthur Willets-KWDK; Art Blum-retired; Dennis Hull-NWS Pendleton
The meeting was called to order and introductions were made. The minutes for the previous meeting were approved.
The new nominee for the head of FEMA is Craig Fugate. He has previous experience in emergency management in Florida. Response to his nomination has generally been favorable. Update: He was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, May 12. See http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-fugate-fema-a051309sbmay13,0,4763629.story. Also at FEMA, the EAS CAP group will be meeting soon.
The EAS Summit was good. FEMA received a lot of good direction. They were told that CAP needs to be finalized.
The yearly EAS meeting was held at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas. The featured speaker was Wade Witmer, Acting Director of the FEMA IPAWS program. There is a new attitude of cooperation at FEMA. They want to create a unified, nation-wide system. See http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws. For a podcast of the session, go to http://www.sbe.org/EASPodcasts.php.
The FCC requirement for stations to start using new EAS equipment is supposed to kick in 180 days after FEMA blesses the new CAP system. They now realize that this deadline is unreasonable, if not impossible to meet. The NAB will probably file an opposition which should lead to a change in the rules. In any case, this should not happen in 2009.
There is a national EAS remailer sponsored by the SBE. To sign up, go here: http://www.sbe.org/eas_exchange.php.
The Coastal Weather Radar system has received some money. The target date would be Fall 2012. This would fill in some gaps in coverage caused by the Olympic Mountains. More info will come later.
The American Association of Information Radio Operators has petitioned the FCC to allow Travelers Information Stations to broadcast AMBER Alerts. See http://www.aairo.org/fcc-petition.htm.
At the National Weather Service, the rollout for HazCollect was April 30. Emergency messages are automatically put out on the weather radio and also sent to news organizations by press release. In Washington, local jurisdictions are authorized to actuate EAS using My States (http://mystateusa.net/). It will be the same to access the Weather Radio network for non-weather alerts. HazCollect and My States will share alerts. There will be testing in May. See http://www.weather.gov/os/hazcollect/.
King County Fire Zone 1 will receive EAS training in May for their Public Information Officers and trainers. Then they will be able to use EAS.
The Seattle Office Of Emergency Management has opted out of originating EAS Alerts temporarily because they are not staffed around the clock. King County will probably do it for them. They will probably do it again in the future.
The Cowlitz-Wahkiakum EAS plan is still being worked on. Grays Harbor County has reconnected with the SECC.
The hunt for a representative from the cable industry continues....
The Central Puget Sound area is still working on getting a back up transmitter for the LRN repeater.
Tab 2 of the state EAS plan, Local Area Chairs, has been updated as of 3/20/09. Ask Clay for a copy at k7cr@blarg.net. It will also be available on the WSAB website at http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas.html.
Major revisions were made to Tab 10 at a meeting in Ellensburg on May 9. There is more to be done. Clay will send you a current copy. It will be finalized and put on the WSAB web site after the DTV transition in June.
On Friday, May 15, KOMO-AM started simulcasting on 97.7 mhz.
Washington State Emergency Management has replaced their EAS box to try and fix their audio problem that showed up in the last RMT. In the future, when the RMT conflicts with their Tuesday RWT, they will move their RMT.
The audio drop out from a previous RMT run by Pierce County is still in the troubleshooting phase.
KIRO-AM missed some RWT's due to a failing power supply on their EAS unit. Once again, it is best to get EAS alerts from the source.
The protocol for flubbed EAS tests was approved at the last meeting and made part of Tab 11. It is on the WSAB web site.
It was pointed out that the Washington State plan needs to be updated.
In Whatcom County, the emergency communications center still needs to install their ENDEC.
The National Weather Service will be visiting Whatcom County soon to distribute their new Tsunami Media Guide which came out in April. They will be doing the same on the Coast and Peninsula soon. The NWS will be originating the RMT on September 16 as part of the Tsunami and Earthquake drill. The test will include EAS, sirens, etc. The test will start at the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.
At the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, the Endangered Missing Persons Advisory process has been formalized. This applies to seniors or anyone else missing under mysterious circumstances. This does not involve the use of EAS. The plan is for that and AMBER to be codified as part of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). That gives the Washington State Patrol statutory authority to administer the plans. The AMBER plan is being rewritten as it is now 5 years old.
Clay did a class at the Amateur Radio Communications Academy in April.
The National Association Of Broadcasters is pushing for FM in cell phones. This might be used as a back up for emergency information. It also might work with Alert FM. This uses FM sub-carriers which are paid for by the government See http://www.alertfm.com/.
Digital stations must broadcast EAS on all audio and video (if applicable) channels.
The new IP-based EAS system in Washington State will be turned on July 1.
The next meeting will be on July 8 at Camp Murray at 9:30 AM.
Terry Spring
Chief Engineer
KWPX TV/DT
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