On (19 Feb 97) Scott Christensen wrote to Bill Newman...
 SC> Before I start this message, I had best give my credentials:
 SC> Until last December, I was the Society of Broadcast Engineers
 SC> frequency coordinator for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. 
 SC> (I coordinated all of the broadcast auxiliary frequencies.)  I was
 SC> going broke doing it, so I had to give it up.  I was also active in
 SC> the local SBE EAS discussions for Minnesota and particularly Ramsey
 SC> County where I live.  I left the broadcasting business as an employer
 SC> in March of '96.
 SC> Bill Newman writes in a message to Scott Christensen
 BN> The change in the name is really not doing anything more than
 BN> it did before. The change from the Emergency Broadcast System
 BN> (EBS) to the Emergency Alerting System (EAS) is in extent just
 BN> that a change in names.
 SC> Wrong!  Very wrong!  The EAS system to begin in the next few months
 SC> (July, I believe - unless there has been another postponement)
 SC> includes digital data message bursts as part of the message.  These
 SC> data bursts include the state, county and "1 of 9" sector location in
 SC> the county where the emergency is taking place.  Part of the data is a
 SC> time and date stamp so that if the same message arrives at a broadcast
 SC> station via different routes it will not be rebroadcast.
I was talking about the changes that most people will be seeing
in their home. The data bursts according to what was sent out as
information to us disaster managers would be going to the TV and
Radio Stations as well as offices of Emergency Preparedness on
the county level. There is a plan in affect where the data
messages will go directly to homes through the TV without being
changed or touched by the TV stations but what I understand that
is at least a year away. Till then the local radio and TV
stations will be putting the copy on the TV as in the past. That
is why most of us are calling this just a name change.
 SC> The local EAS comittees are searching for more reliable ways of
 SC> distributing the signals that originate in one of several state or
 SC> federal agencies.  Many of the schemes that are floating around
 SC> involve VHF and UHF (or 800 MHz) distribution systems as one of the
 SC> methods.  The broadcast station "daisy chains" will remain, but there
 SC> can be *many* routes of distributing the information, including, as I
 SC> said VHF and UHF signals.
They wanted to use the 800 MHz in this area but there was going
to be some problems with the new disaster and public service
dispatching overridding the signals so that has been dropped. Now
they are looking at somewhere in the 900 and above ranges. One of
the large radio manufactors is in Rochester and it si testing
many different radio systems and data systems for the government.
Harris Corp. has ben working on a system like this for over 5
years now and with computers moving along like they ahve been I
think that they might be on-to-something. We now have a alerting
system for Nuclear Accidents at a local plant that is using the
regular fire systems to put out the tones to set off the alert
monitors and serons. It is a digital system and it is so far
working well. The only problem is that if they don't change the
codes every now and then so computer hacker gets the alert system
to activate without the county's knowledge.
 SC> Part of the holdup of the system is the cost of all the new equipment
 SC> to the broadcasters.  And they don't want to buy new receivers (and
 SC> some VHF and UHF transmitters) till the local committees have decided
 SC> between paging, NOAA, phone, broadcast auxiliary, cable, satellite and
 SC> other channels for this new data distribution system.
I also have heard that they are looking into updating and
reactiviating the Old NAWAS Alerting system from the Cold War
years.
 SC> I imagine that broadcast receivers for this data will also be made
 SC> available to the public.  Whether we can get our hands on data
 SC> receivers for the other distribution channels might depend on whether
 SC> or not NOAA (which is one of the originating agencies) carries these
 SC> data bursts on its VHF (162 MHz - you know the ones) signals.
 SC> And on top of that, there has been the scheme of EAS receivers built
 SC> into smoke detectors and other common "emergency alarm" household
 SC> goods...  things like burgler alarms.  You mentioned smart TVs and
 SC> radios that would turn on any time there is an emergency for your part
 SC> of your county.  (With all of the people who can't program a VCR out
 SC> there, who will program in the county info?  Or maybe the TVs and
 SC> radios will operate on a ZIP Code basis like the DBS receivers.)
What I understand with the smart TVs is that the store where the
TV is purchased is required to program the TV and then after that
it is up to the individual to take it to a service center if they
move out of the current viewing area. I think that it will be a
long way down the road before this type of system will be in
effect unless the local cable TV systems does something. I
understand right now they can send a signal that would set off an
alert on the cable boxes to tell you to turn on your TV for an
emergency message. That may be the route seeing that most homes
hagve cable TV.
 SC> As for the confusion, all you have to do is put a bunch of
 SC> broadcasters together in the same room and you've got that!  
 SC> I imagine that the system will be activated very much more often since
 SC> the data burst is only about 10 seconds long and contains the
 SC> addressing information and the message.  Also, a station won't have to
 SC> broadcast every message since the VHF and UHF (and other) links can
 SC> carry the messages to the next stations without interrupting
 SC> programming on "your" station if it doesn't impact your county.  Of
 SC> course, broadcasters will read the information on the air after they
 SC> have sent the data burst if it is for their area.
                SC> NOAA now sends a "pure tone" to open up simple receivers. 
 The new
 SC> system is very much smarter than that, and at least around here there
 SC> was some question of whether or not the data bursts *would* be on the
 SC> NOAA channel(s).  I hope that they have "seen the light" since I got
 SC> out of the loop.
 SC> There are non-specific emergency designators for everything from
 SC> nuclear accident to weather built into the system.  So, it is much
 SC> more than a storm warning system.
 SC> If you want to discuss this further, let's take it to SBE or
 SC> BROADCAST.
I have been on net-mail with a couple of others on this topic.
Some of it does concern Scanners so I occasionally like to post
something here.
Bill
... Bill Newman  --  Rochester, NY  --  wtnewman@juno.com
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