[AMRadio] Ebs Test failure

[BILL GUYGER]

I'm an engineer for a group of stations here in Dallas, and one of them WBAP is 
the PEP (Primary Entry Point) / LP1 for this area. We all got the Turkey Farts 
(the digital bursts at the beginning and end of the message) but we got no audio 
from FEMA for the actual announcement. That was verified by one of the other 
guys who was out at the WBAP transmitter site listening to the phone coupler 
that connects FEMA to the site. Yes they still are using phone couplers to 
connect the system.................

My boss was into the conference bridge with FEMA and all the other PEP's and who 
ever else was on the line and we had the call up on a speaker, so I heard all 
the talk back and forth on "their" end.

Apparently what happened is that FEMA had monitor receivers in many major 
markets with the audio coming back to them on phone couplers for their own 
edification. What they are saying caused the loss of the message is that the 
phone bridge they were using to send the program audio down stream is the same 
one they were using to listen with. With all those couplers sending audio 
back from all over the country with all sorts of different delays and levels, 
the phone bridge software tried to null all those lines at the same time it was 
sending audio to the PEP's because the return feed mix was up in the send buss 
causing the feedback loop that the hybrid couldn't null thus turning the program 
feed into a garbled buzz for lack of proper terminology.

It turns out that some areas actually got the message but that was dependent on 
where you were in the pecking order of the phone bridge. Like I say, Dallas Ft. 
Worth got no message just buzzy garbage.

But the primary purpose of the test was to make the system fail so "they" can 
"fix" the problem. 


It's just that someone at FEMA forgot to assign someone to detail someone to 
authorize someone to send an e-mail to someone to have his (or her) assistant to 
make sure the return audio was not fed to the send buss. But then that may have 
required a form that the Government Printing Office was out of because of lack 
of congressional approval for reprinting. 

Bill AD5OL



________________________________
From: "Jim WB5OXQ inb Waco, TX" <wb5oxq at grandecom.net>
To: kd5fky at juno.com; k5zzm at swbell.net; Gerald L. Richmond <richmond at vvm.com>; 
Gary Brown <watkinsinsurance at grandecom.net>; Discussion of AM Radio in the 
Amateur Service <amradio at mailman.qth.net>; CATMAN247 at aol.com
Sent: Wed, November 9, 2011 9:48:53 PM
Subject: [AMRadio] Ebs Test failure

  I expected to hear the test on radio but none of the clearchannel stations 
which are all but about 2 in our area did anything but continue with normal 
programming.
  I checked several Dallas area stations that I can receive from 90 miles south 
and none of them had the test on.  Only one independent am station KBBW which is 
a Christian talk station had the test on and the audio was poor.  I would say it 
is a miserable failure when the largest station network does not have the test 
on... I can clearly pick up at least 10 fm and loads of am stations from Central 
Texas and only 1 am had the test.  Is this the best our government can do?  What 
a joke.
  Jim Miller Waco, Texas
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