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[TowerTalk] Streetlamp antennas?

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Streetlamp antennas?
From: mraz@aud.alcatel.com (Kris Mraz, N5KM)
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 17:21:56 -0500
[This has *some* antenna content]

Reuters

LONDON -- An ambitious project to provide high-speed
Internet access through electricity mains hit a snag when
street lights using the same power supply turned into rogue
radio transmitters.

Trials of the systems in Manchester showed that Norweb's
Digital PowerLine technology was fast but Internet users
discovered that the data they were downloading was being
broadcast as high-frequency radio waves through the street
lamps.

Physical similarities between the street lights, which are the
right vertical length of a conductor, caused them to act as
radio aerials.

"If the current technology were to be widely used, experts fear
that sections of the radio spectrum could be swamped,
disrupting emergency communications, annoying amateur
radio buffs and interfering with the BBC World Service,"
New Scientist magazine said in its issue today.

Britain's Department of Trade and Industry is holding
meetings with Norweb and users of the affected frequency
such as the BBC, the Civil Aviation Authority, and the
government's electronic communications center, in an
attempt to solve the problem.

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73
Kris N5KM 
mailto:mraz@aud.alcatel.com

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