In a message dated 4/17/04 1:48:17 AM US Mountain Standard Time,
jimjarvis@comcast.net writes:
Guys....
Get a grip!
1) This is an industry trade show.
2) There will be no "honest tests", just sales demos
3) deliberate interference...and that's what was proposed here,
is illegal. And beneath us.
4) power line communications has value for the utilities, where
it supports their operations. Like meter reading and some
control signals. They've been doing that for a long time,
but at low frequencies, and we haven't had a problem.
5) Stick to interference with mobile stations and public safety.
6) The BPL investment is questionable, on its own merits. It can't
last under competitive pressure from DSL, cable, and wireless
solutions.
N2EA
jimjarvis@ieee.org
Jim is right on the money on all counts. Before retiring and starting my
consulting operation in 1995, I spent a long career in communications
engineering
for a large midwestern electrical utility (2 million meters) and was their
primary delegate to the yearly UTC Meeting/Trade Show/Convention for 11 yrs.
Per
his responses above:
1. True, its an industry trade show. Typically no demos of any new technology
are ever planned, just the tech sessions I mentioned in my original memo that
quoted the UTC events listings that started this discussion yesterday. The
"audience" at these meetings are primarily telecom engineering personnel with a
smattering of utility managemnet/marketing folks as well.
2. There wont be any "honest tests" or sales demos. I doubt there will be
even many vendors there who exclusively provide BPL equipment. Maybe
literature,
thats all I would expect.
3. Jim is absolutely right on regarding deliberate interference. This
shouldnt even be considered. Ed hare said it best in one of his emails on this
reflector, "Any talk about intentionally disrupting BPL systems is harmful.
There is
no place for such vigilante approaches in trying to deal with BPL
interference. Even these discussions do not reflect well on the amateur radio
service."
4. Power line carrier (PLC) was very old hat when I began my utiltiy career
in the early 70s. Archaic technology even then, but used everywhere. They
primarily used it for SCADA applications where I worked. It was very reliable
and
well accepted throughout the industry, albeit at low freqs.
5. Jim is correct regarding the predicted mobile intereference. In the public
safety arena, most of the big orgs are on 800 Mhz or at least have 150/450 as
primary. The smaller orgs are nearly all on 150/450 unless they have bought
time on 800. Some tiny ones, or larger ones that havent got the $$ to convert,
still do low band vhf.
6. From what I can gather by talking to a few of my old utility cohorts, some
of the utilities are trying to "buy time" from offering data services to
consumers, by cost justifying BPL by having it do other internal operations
such
as AMR. I havent seen any figures, but this is the thinking of some.
In retrospect, I vividly recall a dept meeting I attended, circa 1987 or so,
where one of my colleagues said something like "The first one to the back of
the house, with wideband capability, wins the race". (the term broadband wasnt
invented yet, but we all knew what he meant). He added, "Looks like the cable
TV folks win!". How management thinking changed.
73, Bob Epstein K8IA, PE
Mesa, AZ
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