STATE
OF WASHINGTON
EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
Approved by the
Federal Communications Commission, March
3, 1997
September 10, 2008
Present: Terry Spring-KWPX; Mark Allen-WSAB; Jim Dalke-Dalke Broadcast Services; Daniel Good-ESCA; Phil Johnson-CPS LECC; Ted Buehner-NWS Seattle; Jim Tharp-Bonneville; Roland Robinson-Bates Technical College; Clay Frienwald-Entercom, Bustos, etc.
Via phone: Art Blum-Retired; Tina Matchit-Forks; Bob Wyatt-KSPS; Elray Rassmusson-Comcast Spokane; Ruth Brownstein-KAOS; Kevin Noyes-Skagit County; Kerry Jones-NWS Spokane; Dave Halloran-San Juan County; Dennis Hull-NWS Pendleton; Sandy Johnson-Thurston County; Arthur Willets-KWDK
Introductions were made and the minutes for the previous meeting were approved.
FEMA has announced in a News Release that they will adopt CAP (Common Alert Protocol) as a standard in the first quarter of 2009. Broadcasters will have 180 days to become compliant with the new standard. This will involve purchasing new EAS gear. The manufacturers working group will be working on implementing CAP into EAS equipment and will issue a press release soon. It will be put on the remailer. The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) is involved in this process. See
http://www.sbe.org/documents/SBEEASCAPWorkingGroupsDocumentMay162008_000.doc.
When a EAS Test fails, the reason needs to be logged in order to avoid an FCC violation. Also, each station in a group or cluster should have it's own EAS log. If one station in a group is being investigated, having all the stations on one log could raise issues for all the stations. In addition, the EAS logs should be kept separately from the transmitter logs.
The Commercial Mobile Alerts System (CMAS) was discussed. If you are interested in a PowerPoint presentation on that subject, email Clay (k7cr@blarg.net). Be warned that it is a big file.
The new remailer is up and running. The old remailer at broadcast.net will be shut down on November 11. To subscribe go to http://sea.sbe16.org/mailman/listinfo/eas-wa.
There are openings for local chairs in North Puget Sound and the Tri Cities.
The proposed Bylaws were discussed again. The main purpose is to provide a way to deal with issues that have no consensus among the members of the committee. An executive committee will decide those issues. The proposed Bylaws were distributed on the remailer. They were voted on and passed. The final version will be posted on the remailer. Mark Allen will be working on who will represent TV and radio. The Bylaws will be under Tab 9 in the state plan.
The AMBER Review committee has not met in a while, but will be meeting soon.
KIRO-AM is now simulating on 97.3 FM, but the FM feed can not be monitored for EAS purposes in place of the AM feed. The National EAS equipment is located at the AM transmitter site.
Contact Clay for help with monitor assignments.
The 2009 RMT schedule will be posted on the WSAB web site after the December test. There are still some minor issues with the schedule. Roland will post it on the remailer when they are resolved.
Check the date and time on your ENDECs periodically, especially if you are an originator. The batteries need to be changed every few years. The batteries are a common type available at Radio Shack and elsewhere.
When the TV digital transition happens in February, the SAP channel will disappear along with the rest of the analog signal. As the KHQ SAP channel is used to distribute EAS in Eastern Washington, they are looking into alternatives there.
In the Central Puget Sound Area, plans are to upgrade the local repeater on Tiger Mountain to, once again, make it redundant. The RMT on August 4 failed. Island County should have originated but didn't due to some procedural problems at the 911 center. These have been addressed.
At the National Weather Service, September is Weather Radio Awareness Month. See
http://www.emd.wa.gov/publications/pubed/noaa_weather_radio.shtml. The new Upper Cowlitz weather radio station will be dedicated September 24 at 3 PM at the Randall Fire Station. The NWS is planning on using EAS for Extreme, High Impact Wind Events.
There was a discussion about EAS alerts in Spanish. Spanish language stations have to translate the alerts before they can be aired in Spanish. The new CAP boxes will be able to output audio in several languages.
At the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, the SECC minutes are going to be presented differently in the future. The current minutes will be on their own page and older, archived minutes will have their own page.
The AMBER Alert Advisory Committee met September 12. This committee advises the WSP. The WSP will have AMBER and Silver alert plans. A Silver Alert is for a missing senior citizen, or anyone else in danger. This would not involve an EAS activation. There will be an AMBER Alert conference October 13-16 in Orange County, California.
The FCC has fined a station for accidentally sending an alert. Another station got nicked for not having an EAS Handbook in the studio, even though there was a copy in a nearby studio. Each station needs to have a copy of the EAS Handbook and the state plan. They can be found here: http://www.wsab.org/eas/eas.html.
In cable news, Comcast sent out many alerts due to some kind of equipment failure. We still need a representative from the cable industry in Western Washington.
The next meeting will be at Washington State Emergency Management on November 12 at 9:30 AM.
Terry Spring
Chief Engineer
KWPX Seattle
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