[sbe-eas] PEP Stations - If we tell you we will have to kill you

[Ed Czarnecki]

To my understanding, NPR is merely relaying the feed from a (local?) PEP
station.  I don't think they have a "special" connection to the alerting
source (i.e. they are not outfitted as a PEP at the NPR NOC).  So, it is not
true redundancy.

 

But it could be a useful backup, at least for individual NPR affiliate
stations.  

 

But, if the suggestion is to use local NPR stations as a backup to PEPs and
LP-1s, then wouldn't monitoring assignments likely have to be amended in a
great number of areas, potentially overtaxing the number of monitoring ports
left available on EAS equipment in some areas.

 

And to monitor the NPR satellite channel directly, that involves relatively
costly satellite gear for non-NPR sites, if I recall correctly.

 

YMMV.

 

From: sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
Ryan McCauslin
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 8:32 AM
To: SBE EAS Exchange - a mail list for discussion about the Emergency Alert
System and other emergency communication issues.
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] PEP Stations - If we tell you we will have to kill
you

 

Make them part of it. The training will (well, should) have been done on how
to respond, and those networks can help to re-broadcast *if* multiple PEP or
Squawk channels are down.

 

I usually don't like redundancy. However, this is a good thing to have when
an emergency arises.

 

- Ryan McCauslin

  mccauslinr at gmail.com

 

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 2:10 AM, Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:

On Thu, 2 Feb 2012, Stephen Weber wrote:

NPR squawk is perfect for redundancy to PEP, not as a replacement...

 

A particular NPR affliate may or may not connect its EAS equipment to the
NPR national squawk channel. I don't know of a national list of NPR
affliates which are setup to re-transmit EANs from their squawk channel.
Each state/local committee would need to check with each NPR affliate how
it was configured.

PEPAC filed a letter last summer describing some of the history
http://ecfsdocs.fcc.gov/filings/2011/07/20/6016829957.html

Its almost like a quasi-version of the old EAN Network.  Diversity
is also useful. Disasters come in all forms. A mix of terrestrial,
satellite, and wired is probably a good idea in plans.

Should other national networks such as Comcast, Directv, DISH, Sirius/XM,
C-SPAN, NASA TV, Verizon, etc be part of the core diversity of the EAS web
instead of just being at the edge or left out completely?


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