Engineering Radio

Like any good government agency, the FCC in conjunction with FEMA are working on upgrading the acronym heavy EAS system with CAP, which stands for Common Alert Protocol. CAP includes something that  FEMA has been working on something called IPAWS, which stands for Integrated Public Alert Warning System.

The FCC is still in the comment/response process (FCC Docket 04-296) which can get long and drawn out.  I would not expect to see any NPRM until late fall 2010 with any changes taking effect in early 2011 or so.

Basically, CAP looks like this:

An EAS to CAP converter monitors a CAP source (think e-mail server) and when a CAP message is received, it converters it to EAS protocol and sends it to a input source of a  EAS encoder/decoder.  The EAS encoder/decoder then passes that information through and broadcasts it.   Of course, the EAS encoder/decoder can still be programmed to pass through specific types of messages for specific area and ignore all others.

Thus far, several manufactures have designed CAP converters for use with existing EAS units:

• TFT, Inc model 2008 CAP to EAS converter
• SAGE Alerting Systems ENDEC
• Gorman Redlich CAP to EAS decoder system
• Digital Alert Systems DASDEC-II
• Trilithic systems EAS plus

Implementation would look something like this:

For a TFT-2008 system.  Others such as SAGE and Trilithic are integrated into the EAS encoder/decoder units.  Basically, the CAP part of the EAS system needs an ethernet port with access to an IP gateway to receive messages from the CAP server located off site.  That is the weak link in the system, as far as I am concerned.

It is not like some of our so call trading partners have been trying to tinker with the inner tubes or anything.  It is also not like that same trading partner makes most of the cheap ethernet switches and routers found in many radio stations, hardware that can be easily configured remotely.  Configured to redirect certain IP addresses to new, exciting, and exotic locations such as Iran or Pakistan.

Perhaps I am paranoid, or not.  It falls back to my time in the military when somebody said “It’s good to be a little paranoid if everyone is out to get you.”

Aside from it hasn’t worked… Over the last several, the FCC has released no fewer than five proceedings regarding EAS.  To date, few, if any meaningful changes have taken effect.  The stated purpose of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is to:

1. provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency.
2. may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.

Seems pretty straight forward.  Local weather emergencies would seem to be the most likely reason for EAS activation, followed by things like Amber Alert, chemical spills, evacuations, etc. To meet those ends, the FCC mandates that radio (traditional and IBOC), television, cable, wireless cable, direct satellite TV, and satellite radio participate in some way or another.  So far, it seems like a fair idea.  Then comes the implementation, which is flawed. To start with, EAS still relies on a daisy chain relay system designed during the 1960’s for CONELRAD.  The over the air monitor assignments of other broadcast stations are the only mandatory information sources in the system.  Other, more relative local sources such as the national weather service, local government and so forth are optional. Next, the most used and most useful part of the EAS, local and state level alerts are completely optional.  Very little or no information is provided to local government agencies on how to access EAS in the event of an emergency.  Then the issue becomes one of un-maned stations.  The initial EAS message goes out over the airwaves, which takes about 2 minutes at most, then it’s back to the music.  No amplifying information, check back for more information when it becomes available, etc.  Nothing.  It has occurred in several cases where a radio show is voice tracked, complete with a weather forecast, which is the opposite of real time weather warnings.  If one happens to miss the initial EAS broadcast because they were listening to another station or whatever, well, too bad. Finally, the National Weather Service itself over activates.  One line of summer time thunderstorms passing through the area can trigger 10 or even 20 EAS alerts.  Over activating, with the same digital tones (rrrrrrannk, rrrrrrank, rrrrrank) followed by the EBS tone then some computer generated voice just gets annoying. To summarize:

1. The national EAS has never been tested, who knows if it will work
2. The EAS relies on unreliable over the air daisy chain relays for it’s mandatory monitor assignments
3. Local and State level EAS (including weather related alerts, something that could be really useful) is optional
4. When connected to the NOAA weather radio system, the NWS over uses the EAS activations

Here is an idea:  For at least ten years now, the idea of a CAP has been batted around.   It seems like a good idea, lets do that.  Get rid of EAS, send emergency information to everyone’s cellphones or whatever and stop fining broadcasters for missing a monthly test.  The weak link in the EAS is the broadcaster’s themselves.  History has shown (over and over again) that the current crop of radio station owners cannot be bothered to meet even the simplest of their public obligations.  The FCC has shown it is only interested in collecting big fines for a missed EAS tests, not actually making the system work.  The system is broken.  As terrestrial radio (and TV) goes terminal, the public will still needs to receive emergency information, the CAP idea can fill this requirement. It is time to pull the plug on EAS once and for all.

WGU-20 logo

Back in the cold war days, the federal government took emergency warning quite seriously.  So much so that they spent about $2 million in 1972 to build a LF (low frequency) radio station WGU-20,  in Maryland designed to integrate into the public warning system.  This was known as the “Last radio station” because it was designed to operate after nuclear armageddon.  Using the first all solid state AM transmitter designed by Westinghouse, the station transmitted on 179 kHz (power 50 KW) with a loop that stated:

“Good evening. This is WGU-20, a defense civil-preparedness agency station, serving the east central states with emergency information. Eastern Standard Time seventeen hours, twenty minutes, twenty seconds.”

The greeting would change to “Good Morning…” or “Good afternoon…” as appropriate.

One small problem arose from this system, no one had long wave receivers.  The government attempted to persuade manufacturers to market, and the public to purchase radios that would only receive periodic tests or that they were likely going to die in the next 15 minutes. It was a tough sell from the start.

Military planners decided that they might integrate the DIDS (Decision Information Distribution System) information gained from surface to air radar that would give the approximate impact areas of incoming ballistic missiles. The idea was, the public would then know which areas to “avoid.”   It may have appealed to the military mind, but most others didn’t quite see the value in it, especially since reaction times would have been 10 minutes or less.

Plans were to build several of these radio stations throughout the US operating on Low Frequency, which would have replaced the EBS over the air daisy chain system that remains in effect today with the current EAS.   Unfortunately, the public never bought into the concept and around 1990 or so, WGU-20 was turned off for good.  The nearest thing was have to it today is NOAA weather (or all hazards) radio.

EBS and EAS have never had to work in a time of emergency and if the circumstances are dire enough for someone to attempt to activate EAS, it is very likely the system would fail.

Once upon a time, usually during a license renewal period, a radio station listener might hear the following on the air:

On May 15, 2001, Radio Station KZZZ (FM) was granted a license by the Federal Communication Commission to serve the public interest as a public trustee until December 1, 2005. Our license will expire December 1, 2005. We must file for license renewal with the FCC by August 1, 2005. When filed, a copy of this application will be available for public inspection during our regular business hours. It contains information concerning this station’s performance during the last four years. Individuals who wish to advise the FCC of facts relating to our renewal application and to whether this station has operated in the public interest should file comments and petitions with the FCC by November 1, 2005. Further information concerning the FCC’s broadcast license renewal process is a available at the KZZZ offices, located at 555 Main Street in Smallville, or may be obtained from the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. 20554.

So what does “Granted to serve the public interest mean?”  Perhaps having a news department, or sponsoring a debate in the local mayor’s race, perhaps a Sunday morning church service.  Maybe some High School football or even broadcasting emergency information such as tornado warnings or a flood warning.

How about broadcasting a flood warning to your listeners that are taking part in a station promotion?  How about if said station promotion happens to be taking place in a flood plain, and warnings issued several hours before the promotion is scheduled?  No?  You can’t make this stuff up, no one would believe you:

A Clear Channel station in Grand Rapids, MI threw its annual B93 Concert Bash on June 20 in nearby Ionia by the Grand Rapids River, apparently oblivious to flash flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

No, nothing bad can come of this right? right?  Of course the inevitable happend.  The river overflowed it’s banks, causing concert goers to flee for their lives and flooding the parking area submerging their cars.  Naturally, Clear Channel will pay those who had their cars towed out of the mud right.  Nope, you listeners are on your own, tough shit.

Then there is the now infamous Minot train derailing. For those not familar, a train carring anhydrous ammonia derailed and spilled it’s contents.  When local officials attempted to activate EAS, they couldn’t.  They then attempted to call the LP-1 station on the phone to get the information out, nobody was home.  Clear Channel placed the blame squarely on the local law enforecement agencies stating that they had not installed their EAS equipement properly and had changed frequencies on their radio link without notifying the radio station.  Perhaps, but it seems there is more than enough blame to share.  Were station employees proactive with the local government officials?  I can’t say, but they should have been.  EAS is a team effort.

Not to pile onto Clear Channel too much, Cumulus seems to encourage their listeners to head out doors, enjoy the good weather.  During a tornado warning.  Nice.

By this, It would appear that the public is interested in fleeing for their lives, having their cars flooded, all the while wondering what is going on.

No matter how hard people try, nothing can replace radio’s role in alerting the public.  Mass e-mail systems, Blackberries, and other internet based systems will fail when the power goes out and kills the supporting ethernet infrastructure.  Cellphones, PCS devices, I-phones become unreliable during emergencies because the TELCO system that supports them gets clogged with traffic.  Many cellphone towers do not have backup generators.  During the events of 9/11/2001, I experienced first hand the difficulties trying to use the wired telephone network due to congestion.  Since the HDTV rollout, cable companies have become the backbone for the distribution of TV signals.  Coaxial based cable systems rely on booster amplifiers every mile or two to keep the signal strengths usable.  Those amplifiers need power from the utility grid.  Not to mention, most TVs cannot run on batteries and lack portability.

Almost everyone owns a battery powered portable radio.  When the shit hits the fan, they will turn it on.  What will they hear?

So where is the official outrage?  Why has not the big radio CEO’s,  public trustees each, been dragged before congress to explain themselves?

Emergency warning siren station

EAS, or more properly, the Emergency Alert System, is a government mandated system of encoders and decoders designed by the federal government to alert the public in case of war or other emergency.  It, and it’s predecessor, EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) have never been activated by the federal government.  Both systems, however, are used extensively by local and state governments for things like weather alerts, amber alerts, etc.

Back in the mid-90’s the FCC had a chance to redo the EBS and produce something that was a streamlined and effective tool for public warning.  Unfortunately, the EAS system is neither.  Rather, it is a cumbersome system of weekly and monthly tests scheduled around pre-conceived notions that how the system is tested every week will be how the system works in an emergency.  In practice, this is generally a good theory of system design, but it has failed miserably with EAS.  The reasons why are thus:

• Most all emergencies are local or at most state wide events.  To this day, very few state and or local government emergency managers would be able to activate EAS for their area.  The reason is there is minimal if any interface with the LP-1 EAS stations or station personnel.  Ignorance and apathy on behalf of both radio station personnel and government officials is the main culprit.
• Most stations are un-maned for large portions of the day.  Even if government official could/did call the station, chances are, nobody would be there.  If by chance, arrangements were made to contact station employees at home, they would have to interface with the EAS equipment remotely, which ads complexity to an already complex system.
• EAS messages are still mainly relayed from radio station to radio station, the so called daisy chain net work that has been shown numerous times to be unreliable.
• The system of SAME codes, FIPS identifiers is not necessarily bad, the application in this case leaves something to be desired.  The FCC had a chance to update EAS before the HDTV rollout.  One would assume that any improvements could have been built into the new TV sets that are now being sold, but again, that opportunity was missed.  For example, I suggested that each TV have a set up screen option where the owner could input their zip code.  They could also choose what types of alerts they would want to know about and even base the alerts types on the time of day.  Live in a flood zone, the FFW (Flash Flood Warning) 24/7.  Live in tornado alley, TOR (Tornado Warning), etc.  The cable companies then pipe in the local NOAA all hazards radio station.  All the sudden there is a real national alert system in place using mostly non-broadcast wireless systems.  Add to that the ability to sign up for emergency e-mails and text messages for specific areas (many places are currently doing this) and there is multiple message paths.

The system as is is not reliable and sooner or later that will be shown with a large scale failure.  Recently, the FCC held a summit with the Department of Homeland Security.  The cliff notes version of this event is: Yes, the system can be made better.  Let’s keep throwing the same ideas at the wall and see if anything sticks this time.  Excuse me if I don’t do back flips, this is the same information that was discussed during the last “lets revamp EAS” discussion back in 2005 (04-296).

In the mean time, the EAS continues to be a good fund raiser for the FCC enforcement bureau.  Which, you know, it is easier to go to a licensed radio station and bust them for not re-transmitting the RMT (Required Monthly Test) than it is to go out and bust some of the numerous pirate radio operators, some of whom are operating in the same city/metropolitan area as a field office.

The shame of it is, it could work without a great deal of cost, very well.