I live in an area served by a co-op electric company which is quite large and
serves over 700,000 persons. I took it upon myself as an owner of the company
(read co-op member ) to call and ask about what they thought of BPL. After some
bouncing around I had a very nice 20 min. chat with the VP of engineering and
let him know that in addition to all the interference issues that I was also
concerned that the co-op would get involved, spend a lot of money that would
not return a profit and that I would have to pay my share of lost money in
increased energy cost passed along to the power users.
He responded that he too was concerned about both issues and was most concerned
that the economics were not good. He said his opinion of BPL was old
technology, warmed over for political and money issues. One of the sister
co-ops is looking into it with a test planned and he said he would look at the
results but was not excited by the whole idea. He said he feels wireless is the
wave of the future and does not believe BPL is the solution that will make
anyone a lot of money except the companies promoting the idea to sell BPL
systems.
He asked that I keep him informed on the radio interference side of the issue
by email to his personal address, since he made no claim to being an expert in
this area and needed to be informed and did not have time to hunt this stuff up
himself. I plan to send him ARRL type info as it appears.
All in all a great response for amateur radio as he also made the statement
that when all other commo fails the hams will be there. He said he knew that
from experience obtained during hurricane HUGO.
I would suggest that all who are served by small to medium sized power
companies make contact with a high up member of management and let them know
your concerns with a particular emphasis on increased cost for energy when the
BPL goes belly up. If you are unable to get to a management official then buy
a share of stock and attend the annual meeting. Ask to speak and find out what
the company plans to do and hopeful let them know of your concerns. Especially
those related to losing money by trying to use old technology to compete
against wireless.
We can all fight this evil in many different ways and all should be used. This
back door approach could be another. Look at it this way. If BPL is not adopted
by your power company it wont ever bother your reception at your QTH. The war
could be lost but the battle at your QTH could still be won. Van W4GIW
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