Ed:
It's obvious that the ARRL has a lot more influence on countering
threats to ham radio than one would imagine. I remember the BPL issue
and I have no doubt that we'd be dealing with horrendous noise if it
wasn't for the leagues efforts. I just hope the same holds true for
solar given the growing number of installations.
I'm sure your relationships with the utilities and device manufacturers
goes back many years and that begs the question: what happens when Ed
Hare retires? Is there someone in the wings with the same credentials?
Tony -K2MO
On 5/28/2022 7:06 PM, Hare, Ed, W1RFI wrote:
There are a lot of reasons, Tony, and which ones mean what to which
manufacturer is speculation.
Here are some possibilities, in no particular order:
o They want their company to have a good reputation, and with amateur
complaints, this would not be the case.
o The ghost of BPL Past still haunts then, and they do have
relationships with utilities to fill them in on what happens when
there is controversy.
o They want to be good corporate citizens.
o They do not want the FCC to start adjudiucating cases. I told them
the Texas story and they don't want to be on the wrong side of bad FCC
decisions.
o They do not want stricter emissions limits, so they want to be able
to say that the existing rules are wortoldking.
o They do want to reduce emissions enough that there are few, if any,
interference complaints.
o They know that ARRL can be a great friend to those companies that go
above and beyond. We did that with Good Guys in the BPL wars and
their "above and beyond" made it into the international standards for
BPL.
o They know that ARRL can be a formidable enemy. The publicity of
what the Bad Guys in the BPL wars prevented that industry from getting
a foothold. Utilities stayed away in droves because the word was out
that if the systems were operated legally, they didn't work well, and
it they were operated "hot," "Ed" would show up and there'd be bad
publicity for the utility and involvement with the FCC.
It's is amazing, though, to see how many companies respond
appropriately. When Phonex made "wireless modem jacks" that operated
on 3.53 MHz, there was interference. When contacted, they redesigned
the product to not use the ham bands. They had been told that
amateur radio was a "dying breed." They learned quickly to the
contrary. AT&T has bought them by the 10s of thousands and rather
than trying to squash us like a bug, they did a system-wide recall of
installed devices, actually sending trucks out with spectrum analyzers
and a whip antenna to find the devices when they didn't have good
records by contract installers. It was industry that contacted ARRL,
wanting to testing of the developing HomePlug standard that was
in-premise BPL before it was even called that. They ended up choosing
to notch the ham bands, creating an industry spec that did not cause
harmful interference to amateur radio. When RFI was getting into
Eaton AFCI breakers, when we reported this to them, they sent two
engineers from CA to witness our findings and had a redesigned model
available within 6 weeks, replacing them in the field in response to
complaints, even paying the electricians.
Yes, there are uncooperative companies, but most are made up of
engineers that want to do the right thing. I keep myself less cynical
so I can help ensure that when those engineers do the right thing, it
pays off for them in good publicity and avoidance of trouble.
Ed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* RFI <rfi-bounces+w1rfi=arrl.org@contesting.com> on behalf of
Tony <73guddx@gmail.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, May 28, 2022 5:33 PM
*To:* Rfi List <rfi@contesting.com>
*Subject:* Re: [RFI] Solar Panel RFI Awareness At Dayton
On 5/28/2022 4:54 AM, Hare, Ed, W1RFI wrote:
> so far, most manufacturers ARE offering considerable cooperation to
try to resolve harmful interference. Solar Edge has replaced over 500
systems in the field, completely removing panels, wiring, optimizers
and inverters in houses and replacing them with improved models.
Generac has done the same on a much smaller scale and has indicated to
ARRL that it wants to have its products operate way below the FCC
emissions limits.
Ed:
Can you speculate why these manufacturers are willing to go above and
beyond what's required by the FCC? Could it be a fear of stricter
regulations and the need to hire lawyers to combat those regulations?
It's all good news, but there must be an incentive for that level of
cooperation. Or am I being cynical?
Tony -K2MO
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