[sbe-eas] PEP Stations

[Tom Bosscher]

Maybe my example of the upper peninsula of Michigan is not a good 
example. Our state EAS chair, Larry Estlack, obtained grant money that 
bought the Comlabs Emnet system for all the LP1's and LP-2's in the 
state, plus the county EOC's. So Michigan is pretty well taken care of.
     As a side note, none of my stations are an LPx's. yet we are buying 
our own Comlab terminal for $ 4,000. Why? So we can have access to that 
information. One really cool item about Comlab system is that a station 
has the capability to 'talk" to the emergency management people to ask 
questions about an event. Hence, we desire that.
     It's been said that all disasters are local. With the Emnet system, 
we will be pretty set here in Michigan. My idea about using Direct and 
Dish is for the national stuff, like the EAN. There is no cheaper way, 
or more redundant way to have FEMA get the word out to the country than 
this way.
     Another curmudgeon viewpoint. I was once added up all the radio and 
TV facilities, and all dispatch and EOCs in the US. And for the cost of 
just 1500 feet of the Big Dig in Boston, FEMA could buy the Comlab/Emnet 
system for all of them. Redundancy? Comlab has to have competitors, so 
let have two independent companies, with separate uplinks and 
satellites, for the cost of 3000 feet of the Big Dig. Something about 
national priorities gets stated here.
     There is nothing wrong with FEMA doing actual radio station PEP 
installations. But still, there are huge, and I mean huge areas of the 
county were you cannot pick up the PEP's. And having the NPR squawk 
channel as a PEP is a great idea. But the Direct and Dish TV would close 
up a lot of loose ends.
    Oh, one more thing. After FEMA would be on Dish and Direct, they 
would, once a week, conduct a RMT of a different state. This way FEMA 
would be testing the national PEP system every week, and the FEMA folks 
would learn how to conduct tests. Hint: They need to hire a broadcast 
engineer on at least a contract basis to teach them a few things. :)

      tom bosscher



On 2/3/2012 5:57 PM, Ryan McCauslin wrote:

> Maybe the Upper Peninsula in Michigan will receive a PEP station as 

> WJR is over 300 miles from Sault Ste. Marie alone. Does the Western UP 

> rely on Wisconsin for PEP messages?

>

> - Ryan McCauslin

>  mccauslinr at gmail.com

>