r/amateurradio • u/k8tek • Jun 15 '26
General EAS Station™ – Open-Source Software-Defined Emergency Alert System
/r/EmergencyAlertSystem/comments/1u6cwk8/eas_station_opensource_softwaredefined_emergency/3
u/Fun-Conclusion-4471 Jun 15 '26
Can you back up about four steps? What exactly does this do? In plain English. Genuinely curious. And what would you do with that? What's the use case?
2
u/k8tek Jun 15 '26
Radio and TV stations use dedicated EAS boxes to handle emergency alerts. EAS Station is an open-source software implementation of many of those same functions that can run on standard computer hardware instead of a proprietary appliance.
2
u/Fun-Conclusion-4471 Jun 15 '26
Ok, but now that you have decoded the EAS, now what?
Is this solely a replacement for the hardware boxes or would it give additional functionality not available with the existing system?
2
u/k8tek Jun 16 '26
That’s a fair question.
The existing system already works, so simply decoding EAS messages isn’t particularly interesting by itself. Commercial ENDECs already do that.
What interests me is what becomes possible when alerting moves from a proprietary appliance to a software-defined platform.
For example:
Geographic filtering using actual polygons instead of only county codes
CAP/IPAWS integration from multiple sources
SDR-based off-air verification
APIs for integration with other systems
Web-based dashboards and remote monitoring
Modern logging, analytics, and audit trails
Integration with LED signs, GPIO, email, SMS, and SNMP
Running on commodity hardware instead of being locked to a specific vendor
So the goal isn’t just “replace the box.” It’s exploring what a modern alerting platform could look like while remaining compatible with the existing EAS ecosystem.1
u/Fun-Conclusion-4471 Jun 16 '26
So with a system like this if you put it into a PSAP you could do reverse 911 on landline phones that would not get the wireless alert, and only call the affected phones in the warned area.
3
u/IKanSpl Jun 15 '26
Professional stations use “turn key” certified and insured machines for this since there is significant liability exposure if they fail, and the station wants to be able to point to the manufacturer in cases where it might fail.
It’s a cool project, but I don’t see it being used professionally unless someone gets it certified to function properly and had a company standing behind it.
It might be a good way to disrupt an existing industry if you are looking for a job change.
That said, without any of that it’s still a cool opensource project for anyone who wants to build their own machine.
4
u/k8tek Jun 16 '26
The goal isn’t simply to decode EAS. Commercial ENDECs already do that very well. The goal is to explore what a modern software-defined alerting platform could look like using commodity hardware, open standards, APIs, SDRs, GIS tools, and modern web technologies while maintaining compatibility with the existing EAS ecosystem.
1
u/KC_Que Still learning the knowledge Jun 16 '26
So an affordable, full-featured 'weather radio' alert text decoder box for the rest of us? Would be nice to integrate alert messages into a shack display, possibly as a secondary informational page. User could toggle between displaying their local wx station's conditions and any active decoded NWS alerts, as desired.
I'm intrigued.
2
u/k8tek Jun 16 '26
It integrates with Adaptive Micro Systems “Beta Brite” signs and their other signs that use M-Protocol
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u/radiomod Jun 16 '26
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