June 12, 2015
Update to EAS Equipment
Most engineers have read or heard about the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning changes to the EAS operation involving national level test.
In its 6th Report and Order the Commission has proposed the following changes….
1. Adopt “six zeroes” (000000) as the national location code pertaining to every state and county in the United States, and we require EAS Participants to use equipment capable of processing this location code.
2. Require that EAS Participants’ equipment be capable of processing a National Periodic Test (NPT) event code for future nationwide EAS tests to bring consistency to the operation of EAS equipment in future national, regional, state and local activations.
3. Require EAS Participants to file test data in an Electronic Test Report System (ETRS) that has been constructed to be a practical, accessible, and minimally burdensome tool for recording EAS dissemination data and developing an FCC Mapbook that can illustrate the manner in which an EAS alert is propagated throughout part or all of the United States.
4. Require EAS Participants to comply with minimum accessibility rules, in order to ensure that EAS visual messages are readable and accessible to all members of the public, including people with disabilities.
Basically what this means is that all broadcasters and cable operations should have their EAS equipment programmed to enable the reception and relay of a National Periodic Test (NPT) with the location code set to “six zeroes” (000000).
In checking with manufactures of EAS equipment we have found the following…
DasDec….The most current firmware already supports the new national location code and the NPT code. Detail information and guidance in configuration of the DasDec for these changes can be found here.
Sage Endec….Sage will update its firmware to allow its model 3644 users to comply with the new rules. Sage users should not make any EAN-related changes to their filters at this time. We will update this announcement, and send email to our support list, when our release plan is finalized.
Gorman Redlich…The company plans to issue an update to their firmware shortly.
These new rules will become effective 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register. In the Report and Order the Commission concluded that EAS Participants should be given up to twelve months from the effective date of the rule amendments requiring use of the national location code and NPT rules to come into compliance with these amendments.
The Commission however said “in light of the fact that FEMA intends to conduct a nationwide EAS test “in the near future,” and that such a test will use both the NPT and the “six zeroes” location code, it is imperative that we ensure that EAS Participants are capable of processing a test with these characteristics as rapidly as possible.
In the EAS Operational Issues NPRM, we addressed this concern by proposing to require compliance with the national location code and NPT requirements within six months from the effective date of their codification into our rules.”
The ABA will keep you up to date on any changes as we go forward. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to the Alabama EAS Committee. For those with spare time and would like to read the entire Report and Order click here.
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