Why buy a new Digital EAS unit?

[Chuck]

These new boxes make life so much easier that you quickly forget about the cost.  They are worth it.

[LA_Guy]

In Pennsylvania we have EmNet. I have been told by the statewide EAS people that we do not need a new EAS unit, as our EmNet coupled with our Sage meets all the new requirements. The Philadelphia EAS Chariman also verified this.

[TomZ]

?

[TomT]

Yes. Double??

Sounds like the Pennsylvania the statewide EAS people are clueless.  You are required to have a CAP capable box by the end of the month.  Or, at least an order confirmation.

[Lazy J]

Make it a Triple???

The Penn EAS folks would have to actively receive, convert, and re-transmit every single CAP message for then entire state. That would defeat the entire point of the CAP system. I think the EAS director is confused.

[TomT]

Incidentally, while solving a problem with getting CAP messages, accidentally got the FEMA message on-air.  (The problem: No filter called "RWT"--it logs regular weekly tests from NWS and our state daisy chain without it, but not the CAP messages.)

The computer-generated voice out of the Sage is quite pleasant, better than "perfect Paul" by a mile.

[kogi19]

On the FEMA Certifications and Declarations page, the EmNet software is on the list with Monroe DASDEC II, Gorman Redlich and Trilithic.  It seems FEMA approved as a converter.  Here's the link:

https://www.rkb.us/search.cfm?typeid=5&subtypeid=1071

[listner1]

It is true Emnet will work as a CAP/IPAWS converter. Emnet is a computer sitting in every radio station, tv station, and cable system in PA. Paid for by PEMA, it's been in use here over 10 years now to distribute messages from PEMA, State Police and local Emergency Mgt. agencies. The terminals receive a KU satellite data feed, and are also connected via the internet. Each terminial is addressable and returns conformations for every message received. So CAP messages can be as specfic as they wish with EMnet and delivered to as many or as few terminals as they wish. EMnet decodes and coverts CAP/IPAWS messages and feeds them to the audio card in a format that is able to be decoded by legacy EAS equipment.

HOWEVER turns out there is a programming error in the EMnet firmware that is causing a character legnth mismatch of the identifier, which in turn is causing SAGE Endecs to ignore CAP messages! So right now it dosent work, and Comlabs won't give anyone an answer on how long its going to take to fix it. It does show up on the EMnet terminal, but that dosen't do much good if there isn't anyone in the building.

[TomT]

If a station is inspected, the "compliance specialists" will want to see a log showing the station is receiving CAP messages from FEMA. So PA stations should have a working CAP capable box fed by the internet as well as this EMnet gadget.