Yet Another Myth Busted
It has come to our attention that a recent waiver request seems to have caused some confusion about whether or not our equipment meets the requirements set forth in the latest FCC Report & Order and lack of clarity in a recent Radio World article may have helped fuel that confusion about whether or not the Gorman-Redlich CAP-DEC 1 will be compliant when used in conjunction with “legacy” EAS devices.
The short answer is YES, it is, and will continue to be, compliant.
Per the CAP specifications and rigorous IPAWS Conformity Assessment Program test regimen that the CAP-DEC 1 passed, the unit processes all CAP event codes and will forward them on as specified in the attached EAS unit’s filter settings. The CAP-DEC 1 has also recognizes, consumes, and forwards messages based on the “six-zeros” national location code of 000000, as it has since 2011. Software versions 2.36+ (and units with updated location code files) will correctly process these messages from the FEMA IPAWS feed while previous versions are compatible with six-zero messages from generic RSS, Atom, and MSUSA feeds.
Likewise, the Gorman-Redlich EAS-1 unit has also processed the six-zero location code, as well as containing the ability to add the National Periodic Test (NPT) event code to the list of required events, since firmware version 9.8 – which has been available for more than four years. The same is true for our television-oriented EAS-1/TVCG units as of firmware version 20.9.
The same is also true of “legacy” EAS equipment from various other manufacturers, including that from now-defunct TFT and several other popular legacy EAS device lines.
The issue arises with equipment, as referenced in the waiver request, for which certain manufacturers have chosen to abandon support and no longer offer software or firmware updates. Although Gorman-Redlich Manufacturing Company currently, as we always have, supports every piece of equipment that we have ever made in our nearly 40 years of broadcast industry manufacturing excellence, we do not have control over what other manufacturers do as they abandon their products or close their doors.
To the best of our knowledge, the CAP-DEC 1, in conjunction with legacy EAS equipment from all major manufacturers, is compliant with the requirements set forth in the latest R&O, to include processing six-zero location codes and mandatory forwarding of the NPT event code, provided that the end-users apply the necessary messaging filters.