RE: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing

[Eric Rosenberg <wd3q@starpower.net>]

I find Dave's comments on one hand fascinating and the other hand 
naive.

I'm neither an engineer nor lawyer.  Worse, my undergraduate degree 
(from the mid 1970's) is in film and video production.  My successful 
early career as a film and television production manager in Hollywood, 
followed by 10 years as a production manager in the public television 
system and then as head of network operations for
C-SPAN has a lot to do with my being a ham radio operator.

That I was able to talk with engineers and understand, their concerns, 
fears, gripes, dislikes and likes is a direct result of my being a ham 
radio operator.  I may not have understood how the innards of the gear 
worked, but I certainly was able to understand why certain things 
worked while others didn't.  And being "technical", engineers were 
comfortable and trusted me.

After fourteen years in that business,  I moved to telecommunications, 
where I started out working in the disaster/humanitarian community 
designing HF, VHF and LEO satellite systems that I then installed in 
the developing world...after writing the user manuals and teaching the 
users.

That led to regulatory work. For the last five years, I've headed the 
Regulatory Affairs groups at Orbcomm and Iridium Satellite, 
respectively.  I may not have authored the engineering papers we 
submitted, defended, or conversely, opposed at the FCC, ITU, ETSI and 
other regulatory bodies, but I did direct and coordinate their 
efforts.  I did write US position papers to those and other regulatory 
bodies.

I say all this because I believe your comment "If we're going to 
overcome BPL, it will be with better technology in the marketplace, not 
by plying lobbyists, politicians, and regulatory agencies with 
emotional arguments that appeal to no one but us" is dead wrong.   The 
reality of this world is that policy is driven by politics and 
economics.  At the consumer level, the "Beta vs VHS" argument proved 
that long ago.   The other reality is that BPL in some form is here to 
stay until/unless the market kills it.  The key in spectrum management 
is how one protects "legacy" systems -- those that work, are up and 
running, make money for equipment manufacturers and service providers 
(i.e., create or sustain industry and jobs), and provide a service to 
users.  Look at the Executive Memorandum on Spectrum Policy Reform from 
last May and the resulting program on NTIA's website: 
http://spectrumreform.ntia.doc.gov/

"As defined in this document, the Administration's spectrum policy 
goals include: i) fostering economic growth; ii) ensuring U.S. national 
and homeland security;
iii) maintaining U.S. global leadership in communications technology 
and services; and iv) satisfying other vital U.S. needs in areas such 
as public, safety, scientific research, Federal transportation, 
infrastructure, and law enforcement."

Finally, I do not believe there is a need, political or economic will 
to replace "legacy" systems -- which would include most, if not all, 
satellite telephone systems.  Believe there is are more HF radio 
systems in use every day than anything else I've ever encountered.  The 
UN is the single largest user of HF radio, with many, many networks 
around the world. While hte technology may not be new, it's very 
mature, inexpensive, a very well known quantity, easy to operate and 
maintain.  Many companies around the world do very well designing and 
selling HF equipment, not to mention C-band satellite systems, analog 
VHF and UHF radio systems.  You might not see them written up in the 
popular press, but they are there in big numbers!

Funny thing, Friday is my last day at Iridium. On Monday, I join the 
NTIA group working on the spectrum policy reform project.  I'm not a 
lawyer or engineer, but instead, as Brett would say, a tinkerer. That I 
have real world experience, have felt the impact of good and bad 
licensing and spectrum allocation decisions (directly!), can speak 
comfortably and confidently with engineers, lawyers and politicians, 
and have them all listen to and respect me is what got me to this 
policy-making group.  Again, ham radio played a tremendous role in my 
getting to where I am today.

Let's face the reality of our predicament and deal with it.  The ARRL 
has it right, has defended their position well (I attended many of the 
US ITU working groups dealing with this issue), and deserves our 
financial and political support.

Eric W3DQ
Washington, DC

At 10:55 PM 4/28/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:56:11 -0400
> From: "Dave Bernstein" <aa6yq@ambersoft.com>
> Subject: RE: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing
> To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <02da01c42d95$8a20f810$6501a8c0@natomaradio>
> Content-Type: text/plain;     charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Tinkering and hands-on experience is of course important - but 
> tinkering with what? You'll have about as much luck with kids and HF 
> today as you
> would have with kids and steam locomotives back in the 50's; not zero, 
> but hardly compelling. If you want to inspire kids today, get them
> tinkering with WIFI, BlueTooth, DSP, and Java; show them how to 
> design, model, and build antennas for those kinds of systems.
>
> I am as anxious to preserve HF from the ravages of BPL as is any other 
> DXer or contester. By positioning ourselves as "defenders of the old
> ways", however, we are all-too-easily dismissed; "ham radio is how I 
> got started 40 years ago" may be true for many in our generation, but 
> is as
> counterproductive a strike at BPL as its analog was against diesel 
> locomotives 40 years ago.
>
> If we're going to overcome BPL, it will be with better technology in 
> the marketplace, not by plying lobbyists, politicians, and regulatory
> agencies with emotional arguments that appeal to no one but us.
>
>     73,
>
>         Dave, AA6YQ
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of VR2BrettGraham
> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 21:55
> To: towertalk@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] BPL: Presidential Backing
>
> tongaloa@alltel.net replied to AA6YQ about where folks of my 
> generation or later get "turned on" technically:
>
> >I can direct you to a professor at Ga Tech who will argue this one 
> with you. With rare exception the ONLY kids who are able understand 
> how
> >things work are the kids who tinker. His job, in addition to EE 
> professor, is motivating secondary school kids with
> >an interest in technology and science! No, he's not an 'old fart!
>
> I may be an exception, having dropped out of college & done fairly 
> well in the Far East, where what you can do & not the letters behind 
> your
> name register with employers.  As K9YC noted, amateur radio was a big 
> driver for folks in his generation to get into a technical career & I
> can confirm that many of my contemporaries back in my native W7 (now 
> staring at or already on the wrong side of 40) would have to give 
> credit
> to their amateur radio interest, too.
> There is no substitute for hands-on experience & the ability to think 
> in the real world - something that mucking with amateur radio as a kid 
> has
> given me... something that my colleagues here have no ability with 
> whatsoever with their higher qualifications (remember Asia - we took
> over your consumer electronics industry a few decades back, shortly 
> after the introduction of Incentive Licensing that stunted the US
> amateur population).
>
> For me, amateur radio was the best qualification I could have had for 
> the last 20 years of my working life & with the continued hollowing out
> of knowledge about RF & in particular analog stuff, there is bound to 
> be plenty of opportunity for those behind me.  HF is one of the many 
> facets
> of this hobby that was crucial to get me where I am now & it would be 
> sad to see this door closed to others should BPL pollute the HF 
> spectrum
> & the amateur service (based on international convention & treaties) 
> again get the short end of the stick in the blind pursuit of profit.
>
> Should that Georgia Tech prof ever come to HK, I & a few of my 
> tinkering drop-out mates would like to buy him a beer or two or six - 
> as he's spot
> on...
>
> 73, VR2BrettGraham

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