Subject: [NEXTEL-1] RE: Manassas (VA) poised to become BPL (Broadband over Powerlines) test bed

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 03:59:38 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
   From: "Todd Ellis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Manassas (VA) poised to become BPL (Broadband over Powerlines) test
         bed

This is actually a very good point.  Hams are screaming, but what about the
majority of the residents?  Are they screaming?  What should they be looking for
concerning problems?

First, this reminds me of an old friend, Al G., from Rochester, NY.  Al was an
engineering technician for RF Harris, and one of the most knowledgeable RF persons
I've ever met.  Being a ham, Al operated a lot of 15 meter CW DX using a KW and a
4 element quad at about 50 feet.  A neighbor across the street really hated Al -
he had this monstrosity of an antenna (4-element tri-band quads are BIG) and they
had enough of looking at it.  Apparently one night they experienced Al's dulcet
tones (he has a baritone voice) coming through their stereo system, and they got
mad.  They contacted the Commission and slapped a complaint against Al, saying
that he must be running illegal power, because he was getting into all of their
appliances - including their microwave oven!!!!  The Commission sent out a field
engineer to inspect Al's station and found nothing amiss.  The engineer found no
evidence of interference other than an occasional peep on the unshielded stereo
when Al was running the KW and pointing the quad in the neighbor's direction.  The
neighbor lost their battle, and Al waited for their house to go on the market,
which it subsequently did.

So, the question remains - how is BPL going to negatively impact consumers?  Are
stereo owners and microwave users going to hear a hum?  What bad things can BPL
cause?

This is a question that hams will ignore, as it doesn't help their cause.  The
only people I see being potentially injured by BPL are shortwave listeners, hams,
and local small ISPs that would be competing for business.  What is so gawd-awful
about BPL?  Can anyone tell me how far away I've got to have my 75-meter dipole
away from a transmitting power line to actually hear the interference?

Being a ham now for 25 years (as of this month), sure, I'd be affected too.  But
the last time I checked, there were only 168,000 ARRL members, and probably at
least half of them don't even use HF.  Spread that out among affected areas, and
very few people are going to be impacted.

And I'm still waiting for a scientific study on how BPL is going to potentially
cause interference.  Telling me it's going to happen and demonstrating in a
controlled, real world environment are two very different things.  Rolling a video
like the ARRL's didn't cut the mustard, but it demonstrated two different sounds
to listen for based on two different transmission systems.

Todd Ellis