Should we the Part 15 Armada use the EAS systems on our stations ?
Is it really that important for us to cover this aspect of AM Broadcast ?
Should we the Part 15 Armada use the EAS systems on our stations ?
Is it really that important for us to cover this aspect of AM Broadcast ?
You're thoughts are more than welcome on this subject .
Why not? EAS gear can be found cheap on ebay and craiglist.
The way I see it, programing isn't the only thing Part 15 can improve on the band. Adding EAS messages of weather warnings, Amber Alerts etc, combined with some localized spot coverage can go a long way, and put the perspective of professionalism in the audience's minds and perhaps our operations will be taken more seriously..by both the public AND by those who wish to see us disappear into the void so they can muck up the band even more.
To add: If your station begins to build a decent audience count, and there are weather warnings or Amber Alerts going off, how is that audience to know if you happen to be away from the studio and aren't there to manually interrupt programing to make the announcement? Answer..an EAS setup to the rescue!
RFB
Why not? EAS gear can be found cheap on ebay and craiglist.
The way I see it, programing isn't the only thing Part 15 can improve on the band. Adding EAS messages of weather warnings, Amber Alerts etc, combined with some localized spot coverage can go a long way, and put the perspective of professionalism in the audience's minds and perhaps our operations will be taken more seriously..by both the public AND by those who wish to see us disappear into the void so they can muck up the band even more.
To add: If your station begins to build a decent audience count, and there are weather warnings or Amber Alerts going off, how is that audience to know if you happen to be away from the studio and aren't there to manually interrupt programing to make the announcement? Answer..an EAS setup to the rescue!
RFB
So what is the EAS gear called and examples of such gear that is out there on the cheap?
I searched Ebay and found EAS encoders, but they looked mighty odd, older and unapproachable.
We need an EAS howto FAQ for folks. I think adding EAS to signal would be a heck of a community service.
The NOAA WX service here broadcasts, in addition to weather alerts, Amber Alerts.
An inexpensive NOAA receiver with an alarm output could be modified to interrupt regular program audio.
For that matter the SAME receivers could do that being a bit more area specific.
Of course that would take a little engineering to implement but shouldn't be to difficult.
Part 15 is free to choose whether or not to install or broadcast EAS.
The EAS brings wide area public alerts and can be valuable information for the listener to find.
I suggest a Part 15 scale-model small version of EAS, which would involve using your station to broadcast missing pet alerts and updates from the neighborhood watch people, who can tell you of any suspicious activity in the immediate neighborhood.
If you're planning on moving away in the near future, you could go out with a gossip program that would get everybody tuned in.