[Yesterday: 3.4 miles]
We ordered and received our one and only piece of new equipment for the WMFH-LP radio station, a Sage Digital Endec.
There is a national emergency warning system that all radio stations, television stations, cable TV, even satellite TV are required to support. In my youth it was called the EBS, Emergency Broadcast System. Now it is called EAS, Emergency Alert System.
Our radio station is required to monitor two other radio stations and an internet feed from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Messages can come in at any time. And if one does come in, we have to interrupt our regular broadcast and play the message.
If you have ever purchased a “weather radio”, you will be familiar with the system. Some tones are embedded in a nasty sounding alert signal. Those tones encode what type of alert it is and what region it is for. Our endec (Encoder/Decoder) has to be configured for what kind of alerts we want to pass along; there is an agreed-upon minimal list at the Mississippi Broadcasters Association website.
So, this endec box is listening on multiple inputs for alert tones, and it has the smarts to know if an alert matches the configuration. When one does match, the endec generates new audio output and interrupts the current content and puts the emergency content on the line feeding the transmitter.
I have to acquire one more FM receiver to listen to our assigned monitoring stations, I have one and need two. Then I have a bunch of configuration stuff to do. And I want to create an interface between the endec and our playback system so that playback will pause until the alert is over (otherwise the content played during the alert will be missed).