STATE
OF WASHINGTON
EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Approved by the
Federal Communications Commission, March
3, 1997
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May 5, 2011
Present: Terry Spring-KWPX; Tom Pierson-KIRO; Clay Freinwald-NW Public Radio; Tom Sharp-Pierce County Emergency Management; Jim Pace-Amateur Radio; Jim Dalke-Dalke Broadcast Services; Larry Zarella-FCC; Kris McGowan-FCC; Ted Beuhner-NWS Seattle
Vis Phone: Carolynn Cockran-City Of Puyallup; Anthony Cavallucci-NWS Spokane; Arthur Willetts-KWDK; Don White-KCPQ; Deborah Needham-City Of Renton; Tyree Wilde-NWS Portland; Mark Murphy-Snohomish County Department Of Emergency Management; Dave Holloren-San Juan County EM; Mark Allen-WSAB; Hillman Mitchell-King County EM; Dennis Hull-Pendleton NWS; Cindy Braunheim-Fisher Communications; Roland Robinson-Bates Technical College
The meeting was called to order and introductions were made. The minutes for the previous meeting were approved. There were no comments on whether to change or rotate the meeting venue.
There is nothing new from the FCC on the proposed rule-making for Part 11 (EAS). Don Miller was absent today. He was featured in an article on CAP in Radio World. See
http://www.radioworld.com/article/his-state-hears-alerts-loud-and-clear/23019
As noted last month, the new EAS Forum is independent of the Society Of Broadcast Engineers and is supposed to take up where they left off. To join, go to http://eas.radiolists.net/.
The National EAS Test is still being planned. No date has been announced, yet. It will not wait for the CAP roll out.
FEMA was active at the NAB convention in Las Vegas. See
http://blog.alertfm.com/post/2011/04/Emergency-Alerting-Front-and-Center-at-2011-NAB-Show.aspx
Washington State will not be buying any more EAS Equipment. The grant money is gone.
Mobile alerts were discussed. Smartphone users in New York will be first, starting late this year. There will be an automatic sign up and no cost to consumers. The new personal Localized Alerting Network will deliver geographically targeted test messages to GPS-enabled phones. See
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015008733_apuscellphonealerts.html
PBS is also working on a system to feed EAS information to many different platforms, including cell phones, tablet computers, laptops, and car navigation systems. This uses DTV rather than cellular networks. See http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/119054
The National Weather Service had the wrong audio on the April RMT, as did everybody else who received the test from KIRO. It was caused by a bug in the KIRO Sage ENDEC which has probably been fixed. The weather service will need to do some testing with the FLW (Flood Warning) event code. They will probably just Kill the weather radio transmitter so it doesn’t get out. NWS is working in parallel with FEMA to bring CAP on line.
How often should you set the new CAP EAS boxes to poll? It depends on your internet connection and the capacity of the server you are polling. Too often and things could get overloaded. Not often enough could cause a delay in getting alerts.
The Washington State Association of Broadcasters has negotiated a deal with Broadcast Supply Worldwide for a discount on the new Sage ENDEC. This is for WSAB members only. Contact Mark Allen for info. The AMBER Advisory Committee has not met yet to discuss the recent AMBER Alert in Federal Way. There was still some confusion about who originates AMBER Alerts. The Washington State Patrol, through Washington State Emergency Management originates alerts. If an entity has an approved AMBER plan, it is automatic. If not, the WSP makes the decision of whether the event meets the criteria.
The FCC has a new employee, Larry Zinnella. He is an Electrical Engineer that has a lot of cell and 2 way experience. He previously worked for ATF.
Kris McGowan stated that if your EAS equipment breaks, you need to get it fixed. You have 60 days before you have to notify Kris. EAS logs can be kept electronically, but you still should print one out once a month. Even with the CAP boxes, you still must monitor 2 sources. One can be CAP if it’s in the state plan.
If you need a copy of the RMT Test schedule, it should be in the state plan on the WSAB web site. See
http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas_tab11.html
The Cowlitz/Wahkiakum local area is still working through some issues. They lost their LP-1, but it was replaced with other local stations.
The local area committees should be meeting regularly.
The Seattle SBE Chapter will be having a EAS programming workshop on August 11. Lowell Kiesow will be leading the discussion. The location is to be determined.
The Central Puget Sound LRN is almost ready to go back into operation.
Clay needs help updating TAB 10, monitoring assignments. Please let him know if you are monitoring CAP, or any other recent changes. Make sure you note the call letters of the station when emailing him.
To change your monitoring assignment, send a message on the remailer. The state plan will be modified when the new FCC rules come out. The current plan is on the WSAB web site. See
http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas.html. Clay is working on updating the monitoring assignments in Tab 10. It will be posted on the web site when he is done. If you need a copy of what he has done so far, email Clay and he will send it to you. He can’t use the remailer because the file is too big. At present, monitoring CAP is voluntary. The state plan cannot override the federal plan without a waiver.
Phil Johnson was not here today, so the item on make up RMT’s was tabled until July.
Ruth Brownstein is the new chair of the Mason/Thurston local area.
The next meeting will be July 13 at 9:30 AM at Camp Murray.
Terry Spring
Chief Engineer, KWPX TV
ION Media Networks
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