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The Part 11 Rules (47CFR Part 11, 11.56, 3c for location code with PSSCCC format) state,“The use of county subdivisions will probably be rare and generally for oddly shaped or unusually large counties. Any subdivisions must be defined and agreed to by local officials prior to use.” P defines county subdivisions with digits from 0 through 9. The Part 11 Rules refer to county “subdivisions,” but because the word subdivisions may have different meanings to the public, NWS prefers to refer to county subdivisions as county partitions, with the overall process referred to as Partial County Alerting for NWR and EAS. Broadcasters’ EAS encoder/decoder equipment must meet the requirements specified in Part 11. The implementation of PCA for a county must first be agreed upon by local officials; emergency managers; state and local broadcaster associations; and State and Local Emergency Communications Committees. The use of PCA should be documented in State and Local EAS Plans. Each SAME message is composed of a digital protocol containing a 6-digit location code. Many broadcasters program their EAS encoder/decoder equipment to monitor one or more NWR transmitters. The 6-digit SAME location code is identical to the EAS location code for a given county or county partition. When broadcasters monitor NWR for SAME messages, their equipment, if correctly programmed, will recognize, process and convey weather messages to EAS. If a SAME message invokes a given county partition, the EAS message invokes the identical county partition. Before PCA is implemented for a county, EAS Participants should decide if they wish to convey warnings for specific county partitions or all warnings for a county. Broadcasters should check with their respective equipment manufacturer for minor equipment setting updates. |
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