EAS Test

[oldtvman2]

WEMM FM failed the test. I was listining from 1:58PM till 2:05PM and no test ?? wonder how many others failed ??

[genlock]

I was waiting on it, but fell asleep.
Missed all the excitement.

[The-Hammer]

A mailing list I'm on has wide spread reports of lousy or missing audio or no alert at all. Some stations received and retransmitted fine, but they seem to be the exception.

All we received was a static filled "This is a test of the emergency alert s...." followed by 30 seconds of hum followed by the EOM tones.

[Big Media]

As I understand it, it was delivered to the primaries at 14:00, but it was coded somehow to be retransmitted at 14:03. The audio was exactly as described by Hammer. SOM, Tone, Static, hum, EOM.

What an abortion.

[genlock]

I wonder if the feds will ever admit where the problem was?

[oldtvman2]

I believe the problem is the FCC letting all those LMAs and no one home at the stations and automations not knowing what to do with those tones. If there was an emergency there would be no one that could notify any one. just locked the door and left the building. radio and tv no longer provide public service, just look at how few have news local or otherwise. we had a traffic problem on rt 2 last week and half the road blocked but the one station trying to report traffic problems had nothing to say about it and it went on for several hours.

[Big Media]

As far as EAS is concerned, it is entirely automated. Of course, if you are a primary, it would be a different story. Personally, I believe the EAS is over used. Sending severe thunderstorm watches and other similar weather related messages cries wolf. One spring day a couple of years ago, we had 24 activations in one 24 hour period. That's excessive and pointless.

Here's a link to the tread:

http://wvbroadcasting.net/viewtopic.php ... &hilit=eas

Insane.

[genlock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mYi7VFT ... ture=share

EAS from WBAP, Ft Worth, TX. This is a primary entry point for the system.
Right off the conference bridge at the mothership (Mount Weather, VA, I think).
Sounds like the epic fail was with the feds, not local yokels.

[Dave Harman]

We received it from NPR containing the problems mentioned here. So it seems as though if it can't get through that initial part of the distribution process without messages being cut off, overlapping data streams, dead air, and distorted audio, then it's pretty much doomed.

[oldtvman2]

I agree with big media the weather people over use it and they seam to be the only people to make it work. but using it every 5 min. about something hundreds of miles away is realy causing people to go to CDs.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I'm surprised it took 60 years to test the national readiness of an alert system that has been mandatory in some form or fashion since ... what, the mid 1950s. This system needs to be de-bugged and tested again until it works like it should. Broadcasters have spent a collective small fortune buying one piece of equipment after another to meet FCC requirements. Regardless of the local overuse of EAS by the weather boys, the public WILL turn to traditional broadcast outlets if a national emergency occurs. We need to revamp EAS so it will work.

[genlock]

We could go back to 5 level Baudot teletype over wires.
Just wait on the bell.

[Scott Reppert]

"Brother Conrad, fire up the Conelrad and call Mrs. C.. Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhhhhh".

THAT is how it's done...

[Cameron]

There isn't enough server-space to house the post I wish to compose so I'll try to keep it brief:

1) It is shocking how little "Chief Operators" know about the EAS and the fact that, if set properly, with aggressive/logical filtering, this stuff works pretty-good on a local-level. (National/Federal/Govt. and their activations are usually the weak-link).

2) FILTER! There is no rule that states that a station is required to pass a NWS Special Weather Statement. Filter it out. A station needs to have RWTs/RMTs (logged) from it's monitoring assignments, generate/log a random RWT, and pass/log a RMT. Excessive traffic on an EAS codec is a sign of a lazy engineer/operator. Get a crappy computer not being used for anything and use freeware to capture the serial-data from the EAS codec and print for the reports rather than have 800 feet of paper on the floor. Also, the print setting can be turned-off and the thing can print selected content from the menus or the manufacturer's software.

3) FILTER TO PASS WHAT MAKES SENSE! If a volcano warning comes in for Tulsa, OK...let Tulsa deal with it. These units alow for filtering to a quadrant of a county. If your city-of-license is Huntington, WV, it makes sense to pass a tornado warning for Huntington, WV. Decide in the filtering if you want to pass a tornado watch for Pliny, WV.

4) TIMEOUTS/Dupe-Message ignore. Yep. These units allow for this to be filtered also.

5) Delay, Countdowns, Forced if not relayed - You can set the alert to show an operator the content if it is below a critical-filter and delay to a natural-break.
The same can be done with RMTs - they're to be passed within 15minutes....you can force them to pass after a 14 minute countdown if an operator doesn't pass them in a break beforehand.

6) Program in a timeout/abort with an EOM - Allow the operator to abort with your EOM when the station you're monitoring either has silence or holds your station hostage because they're to dumb to send an EOM.

7) Your monitoring stations don't work, can't be received, or simply can't hold their end of the relay-bargain - Have the State Coordinator work to get an assignment that works and makes sense. The licensee needs to make sure they aren't hosed during an inspection. A monitoring-assignment is gospel until you get it changed and the Commission holds the station responsible if it doesn't work.

That's a brief as I can get on this subject...

[cgarison]

So we were not supposed to be hearing Lady Gaga sing Paparazzi.

Damn. I thought when we all heard Gaga it was a success because that is the sound of the world coming to an end.

[sportsvoice]

We got tones but no audio in Dayton, OH.

[Big Media]

2) FILTER!
3) FILTER TO PASS WHAT MAKES SENSE!
4) TIMEOUTS/Dupe-Message

Done. We pass very...very... few messages. It's the logging of what was received that was killing us. Fortunately, this is much better now that we dumped the TFT and went with DASDEC.

6) Program in a timeout/abort with an EOM - Allow the operator to abort with your EOM when the station you're monitoring either has silence or holds your station hostage because they're to dumb to send an EOM.

For this, I am pretty sure we have to pull the plug on the box (I may be wrong). No other way to release, that I know of. If we are unattended, we are simply forced to endure Brooks and Dunn for 2 or 3 minutes (if not longer).

[Lester]

http://www.businessinsider.com/attentio ... -2011-11-1

[Dave Loudin]

Some insight into the crappy audio - a hardware fault relating to feeding WCCO.

[genlock]

Some insight into the crappy audio - a hardware fault relating to feeding WCCO.

So we should bomb Norway?