Cheap EAS for Hobby Broadcasters

So if I understand this correctly, my program audio is sent via Bluetooth to the Kenwood receiver.

The audio from the Kenwood is sent to my transmitter.

The Kenwood Bluetooth audio is the selected output but the Kenwood receiver is tuned to a local radio station.

When the local radio station puts out an EAS alert, the local radio station EAS audio will preempt the Bluetooth audio.

When the EAS alert ends, the Kenwood will go back to the Bluetooth audio.

Sounds like it would work.  The FCC also requires stations to maintain an EAS log to show all events but they don't consider Part 15 stations as stations so they can't fault you for no EAS log.

Don't know what video your talking about, but I seriously suspect the NAB could care less one way or the other if part 15 broadcaster  broadcast emergency info or not, or much of anything else...

But you have an interesting idea, however you could probably get by a lot cheaper and less cumbersome than using an car stereo to do it. There's numerous portable radios on the market with the same features.. one example is this Midland WR120B/WR120EZ  Alert Radio for $29.

There was a member of this forum who had described how he did something similar using such a radio.. can't remember who it was...

MRAM you're correct and I posted it up on Michelle Bradley's Facebook forum. my broadcast engineer friend gave me the model number of the radio and we are going to start work on my radio station to do just that. I'm saving right now for the Kenwood car stereo the antenna and the case to put the stereo in and I'm going to have it so that I can use it as a monitor as well. I would like to get two of them one for the EAS and the other to put in my bedroom to monitor my station. I'll probably use a shorter coax cable and put the antenna indoors we'll just see how that would work in my bedroom but for the one next to the transmitter I can put the antenna outside so it will get better reception.

What Michelle Bradley thought the radio is doing as you find a local HD station and you tune to it. Now flip it to Bluetooth that will be the audio source and you will use your Bluetooth transmitter to connect to your computer or mixing board. Anytime there's an emergency just like a professional radio station it will cut over your audio and play the emergency alert. Now since you're going to use the preamp output to your transmitter by going through your audio processor first whatever gets broadcasted over the Kenwood gets broadcasted to your transmitter. So the Kenwood is your EAS system.

I can already tell you from experience that the Kenwood car stereo will make that radio you're discussing look like a Fisher Price toy because that thing has super reception both on FM and AM. It beat most car stereos that received my station except for the possibility of the Toyota Corolla. Even with the fin antenna my listeners with the Toyota Corolla could hear my station about the same distance as the Kenwood with a steel antenna so I'm curious to find out what a Toyota Corolla radio would have done with a steel antenna the same as with the Kenwood was hooked up to. However I don't know any other car stereo that does this as far as an EAS.

The video I was referring to was the one that Michelle Bradley was broadcasting live to the people who subscribed to her forum and rec net. This is where I had that one time opportunity to TuneIn and watch it I should have done it with my computer and use my program that allows me to rip audio and video because I would have ripped that video saved it and then put it up on some website somewhere so that all you could have seen it. It was very informative but one of the things they discussed with the FCC was that people who ran their own radio stations did not broadcast EAS information. This Kenwood car stereo as the EAS system would deny the NAB that excuse and then we could move on forward to asking for more power on the am broadcast band as hobby broadcasters because we have nipped BNA bees rebuttal right in the bud so they would not have a leg to stand on and if that's the only reason has hobby broadcaster's can't get 10 watts on AM my broadcast engineer friend and I has just solved your problem.

If we get this to work and when we have the opportunity to get it to work I will post it on my YouTube channel I will post a video of how it works how it's constructed and advise all hobby broadcasters to use the same method. We could get that very same radio as a standard for all hobby broadcasters to use and instead of spending $15,000 on a sage EAS system with the conversion kit your car radio antenna everything you need to make that system work in your home including the power supply itself will cost you weigh less I'm guessing less than $400 to do it. Now keep in mind that the sensitivity on that radio will beat anyting you can put inside your home as an EAS monitor. So I ask you this question why not and furthermore why not encourage your listeners to get the very same radio convert it to receive you in the first place. If you're smart you could sell that very same radio and lots of fifty to a hundred with the conversion kit whereas The Listener just plugs the radio into the kit you and make it look something like an overgrown boombox. Imagine you just revitalized the AM radio broadcast band.

There are EAS systems for much less although still pricey.

Our LPFM used an EAS by Dasdec.  Cost was around $3k.  Has 3 internal receivers with room for 4.  Has both analog and AES audio capability.  Logs all EAS events including CAP.  Stores audio clips of events and fully programmable for type of event to forward.

Perhaps a digital ghuru could come up with an RS232 decoder to recognize the EAS header sent at the start and finish of an EAS event.  That could control a switch to select the EAS audio.  Then you could use any radio.

Then again, a vox switch on the audio out from an inexpensive Alert radio could activate a switch also.

That could be an inexpensive EAS system.

If you use an audio compressor/limiter that has "sidechain" input control, you wouldn't need a VOX switch.

The sidechain control of the program audio would drop the program audio low enough for the Alert to play over it.

This could be an even cheaper solution if you already have the sidechain capability.

Is there anything in the FCC part 15 rules about broadcasting alerts? Just sayin'. In Canada no mention is made in the CRTC rules on programing for BETS-1 unlicensed stations about having to broadcast alerts or emergency news. In fact all programing has to originate with you, not a rebroadcast of something else which an alert is.
Thelegacy's method is good but a complicted and expensive ($1000?) method, especially with an over the air  station that most likely no one is listening to, or the facilities to do this. Also to comment on the legacy's using another radio like the Kenwood or whatever operating with your other audio for your station why wouldn't the Kenwood radio interfere with yours? Two things playing at the same time?

The Kenwood is playing out the Bluetooth audio which is your program audio.

At the same time, the Kenwood's radio receiver is monitoring a local radio station but not playing it out.

When an EAS alert is received by the Kenwood radio receiver, the Bluetooth audio is muted and then the local radio station audio would play out.

When the EAS alert ends, the Kenwood radio receiver is muted and the Bluetooth audio would resume.

In this way, only one or the other would be passed on to your transmitter.

OK so I think I get it, so you need a receiver/radio that has this special feature to do two things at once, monitor a station without actually playing it, and play Bluetooth at the same time.
But I don't think this is mandated at all with part 15 and absolutely not in Canada.
I had in the past a weather radio by Eton that you could set to monitor the weather station but not play it but if the weather office broadcasted an alert a siren would go on and the alert would be broadcast. But that would just be weather not a child missing or other emergency.
But I don't think this is necessary or worth all the trouble for a part 15 over the air station just because the NAB doesn't like it.
There used to be, on older radios from the early 60s and before marks on the dial that indicated if an emergency like a nuclear attack or something you tuned to those marks indicated where you would get the emergency news. But that was ended around the mid sixties.

Correct, EAS on Part 15 is not a requirement.

But some strive for something more than what is currently permitted.  And the hope is that a new low power community broadcast service will be created by meeting specific requirements such as EAS.

Some feel it's better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit...

Somebody... I thought it had been in this forum, but perhaps elsewhere, but somebody (I kind of thought it had been Mram, but apparently not) had described in detail how they utilized a common alert radio along with some common utilities to create an automatic EAS type on air alert system that automatically kicked in and interrupted the current broadcast and the returned to regular playlist when it was over... Does anyone else recall this?

Some feel it’s better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit…

Mram, is that kind of like "it's better than to have loved and lost than to never been loved at all?.. Or are you saying not to date an ugly girl?

I'm confused about the "saving 14 grand on a Sage EAS system" A brand new Sage/Endec system is presently $2379.00 with free shipping.  Naturally this gives you about 200 times the flexibility and 100% the same as a commercial station.  Who is selling these for 14K?

And yes, there are commercial systems that are cheaper.

And yes, the jury rigged system explained here does sound like it would work as well, but geeze, you're already suggesting buying a second Kenwood for when your first one bites the dust.  I never worry about our SAGE failing.

I did, some time ago post about using a weather alert radio that has built in connections for an internal switch closure that I use to put weather alerts live on my station as they come in from the NWS.  Cost me about $40 for the radio, and some random wires, a relay, and used wall wart to power the relay all from my junk box.  It's worked fine for 6 years now.

As for the NAB worrying that hobby stations don't play EAS messages, people also don't receive those while listening to the iPods, mp3 players, records, cassettes, or the built in hard drives in their car systems.

And in 46 years on the air in commercial broadcasting the ONLY valid EAS message any station I've worked for has received or broadcast has been weather related.  You get the same warnings, faster, with a weather alert radio.  Also remember EAS requirements not only require you to receive alerts, but to also issue your own weekly tests and to receive and transmit monthly tests.  Can't do that with the system above.

TIB

Here's another way to go with 'Ye poor Man's EAS' utilizing a weather radio with auto-alert,   https://archive.org/details/yepoormanseasrev2.1/mode/2up

Read, download, build. Thus far, the prototype seen there has seen rockin' since Feb. 2020.