[Rfu-barnraising] EAS and on-air light update

[Randall Cotton]

I'm on the work groups for EAS (Emergency Alert System) and on-air
light.

I can be reached by cell phone at 217-722-8470

This is an update on what I've learned so far and what I'm working on.

Folks assigned to work on EAS:
me
Otis McClay otie at ev1.net

Folks assigned to work on the on-air light:
me
Dave Arney dave at babel.serve.com
Norm Stockwell normstoc at wort-fm.org

If you're not on the lists above, but would like to help, please send
a response to others in the group you'd like to join.

To keep traffic down on the leti and rfu-barnraising lists, I'll only
send future tech e-mails on this stuff to people in the workgroups, so
if you want to be in the loop, speak up now 8-)

EAS
----
The EAS unit we have is:
Trilithic EASyPLUS
There's quite a bit of info on the web, including manuals
http://www.trilithic.com/index.php?cPath=4_121_146

I've printed out a copy of the Installation manual and I'm about to
read it.

We'll need an old-school parallel-port tractor-feed printer to log
alerts
  Otis says he brought one that he thinks is working, there may be
others
   that have also been donated recently.
I have a 6 foot parallel cable I can donate if necessary
I have a startup supply of 8 1/2 x 11 tractor-feed paper.

The EAS system will need to be tuned to receive 2 of the 3 possible
"Local Primary" (LP) EAS stations.
The LPs for our area, as per the State of Illinois Emergency Alert
System State Plan
( http://www.ilba.org/downloads/FCC/IL_2005_EAS_PLAN.pdf ) are:

WDWS AM 1400 (Champaign)
WLRW FM 97.5 (Champaign)
WSOY FM 102.9 (Decatur)

I'm thinking maybe we should use WDWS and WLRW both because their
signals will be stronger. Maybe other folks have a better idea.

Andy Gunn says we have plenty of RG-6 to connect antennas (and I have
F-connectors and a crimp tool if needed). There is supposed to be an
attic-type crawl space for said antennas, but I've not seen it yet.

Not sure what the technical or practical requirements are for our
antennas. All I have is a simple AM loop antenna and a trivial FM
dipole antenna.

I plan to bench test the EAS box later today or this evening. Get in
touch with me if you want to be there.

Other useful docs:

FCC EAS Handbook:
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/easamfm.pdf

FCC Low Power FM Station
Self-Inspection Checklist:
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/bc-chklsts/EB18LPFM0805.pdf


On-air light
-------------
Someone has handcrafted a great little wooden on-air light box (uses a
regular light bulb). I just discovered it earlier today.

There is an electrical switchbox that was installed on the outside of
the studio (facing west) for the purpose of an on-air light, so
perhaps that's where this light should go (though it seems to me that
at some point there should be a very visible on-air light *inside* the
studio as well). The outside switchbox is connected to an electrical
conduit raceway leading to another switchbox in the interior of the
studio (on the east wall) at the same height above the floor as the
electrical outlets. When I checked this morning, there was no wire
pulled or power available anywhere in that raceway. If we're to use
the handcrafted box, it will need to be supplied with line voltage
(via a 12V relay controlled by the console board). So I asked the
electrician there (should have gotten his name) to provide power to
the raceway (at a junction box which will presumably be above the
raised ceiling after it's installed). So we need to get the 12V
control signal from the board (the 12V is applied to turn on the
light) to a relay that we'll install in the junction box (I asked the
electrician to install an extender on the junction box to make room
for that). A Fairchild IN4148 Diode (or suitable substitute) is also
necessary (as per the wiring diagram in the back of the manual for the
console board). Has anyone tracked this down, yet? If not, I can work
on it.

The 12V relay signal from the console board is via a DB-9 port. I have
a solder-cup DB-9 connector we can use for this.

Has anyone tracked down a relay yet? 12V DC control signal, normally
open relay rated for house current. Solid state would be best, but we
may have to make do with mechanical to start with.

That's it for now...
R