Monroe Electronics
April 2010
News from the Beltway
Monroe Electronics, Inc.
100 Housel Avenue, Lyndonville, NY 14098
phone: 1-585-765-2254 · fax: 1-585-765-9330 · www.monroe-electronics.com
1. Digital Alert System DASDEC Successfully Completes FEMA IPAWS
Conformance Assessment
We are pleased to formally announce that the Monroe-Electronics R189 One-Net has successfully
completed FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Conformity Assessment.
According to the Conformity Assessment (CA) Program Test Report, the process is designed to ensure
that vendors who wish to provide hardware or software solutions to meet FCC and FEMA requirements
conform to a range of program requirements:
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the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Common
Alerting Protocol (CAP) Version 1.2;
OASIS CAP v. 1.2 USA IPAWS Profile Version 1.0;
CAP EAS Implementation Guide Version 1.02; and
FCC Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 11.
In sum, the IPAWS CA program has verified that the One-Net conforms to the FEMA Integrated Public
Alert and Warning System requirements for receiving alerting messages from the FEMA IPAWS system.
Test engineers with the Incident Management Test and Evaluation Laboratory (IMTEL) executed a series
of test cases, under which the One-Net successfully completed all requirements. This assures
broadcasters and the public that the One-Net complies with FEMA program requirements.
In addition to having successfully completed the IPAWS Conformity Assessment, the One-Net maintains
FCC Part 11 certification, as well as FCC Part 15 certification. As such, the One-Net demonstrates that it
meets all requirements for EAS participants to meet the FCC’s CAP compliance deadline. At this time, the
deadline is still the end of September 2011
Devices that have successfully completed the IPAWS CA process may file a Suppliers Declaration of
Conformity (SD0C) on FEMA’s Responder’s Knowledge Base website (www.rkb.us). The purpose of the
SDoC is to give assurance of conformity of product to IPAWS program requirements.
The One-Net is already listed on the Responders Knowledge Base (see
https://www.rkb.us/contentdetail.cfm?content_id=252710, or go to http://www.rkb.us and search for
“Monroe Electronics”).
www.monroe‐electronics.com We are in the process of filing our Declaration of Conformity, which will declare that the One-Net
conforms to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)
Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) v1.2 Standard (1 July 2010), OASIS CAP v1.2 USA IPAWS Profile v1.0
(13 October 2009) and the CAP EAS Implementation Guide Version 1.02 by passing the test cases in the
IPAWS Conformity Assessment Test Report in their entirety without exclusions.
2. FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making Expected on Part 11
Changes
There appears to be additional movement in the issuance of the long-expected FCC Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM) announcing needed changes to the EAS Part 11 rules to reflect Common Alerting
Protocol (CAP) messaging. Senior FCC officials indicated that the NPRM was very close to being issued,
though as of April 27th, the NPRM had not yet been released.
In a related issue, there does not appear to be an inclination to again extend the September 30, 2011
deadline to install CAP EAS equipment. At an NAB panel discussion, senior FCC officials noted to date
they had not been presented with any compelling reason to extend the deadline again, and referred back
to the statement of the Commission that also indicted that another extension was not likely.
3. FCC seeks comments on the Public File
The Federal Communications Commission has invited comments on whether or not the local public
inspection file requirement is really necessary. See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-0418/pdf/2011-9251.pdf
Since the obligations imposed by the public file rules constitute “information collections” (per the
Paperwork Reduction Act), the FCC must periodically justify information collection requirements to the
Office of Management and Budget. The current OMB approval is set to expire on September 30, 2011,
Among the questions on which the FCC is now inviting comment are: (a) Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission,
including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Commission’s
burden estimate; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (d) ways
to minimize the burden of the collection of information, including the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information technology, and (e) ways to further reduce the information
collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
The FCC will be accepting comments through June 17, 2011. After that, the FCC will bundle up any
comments submitted and send them over to OMB. OMB will then provide an additional 30-day comment
period. If OMB declines to approve the rules, the FCC will be unable to enforce the local public inspection
file requirement.
www.monroe‐electronics.com