[CQ-Contest] WSJ Article, March 23, 2004

[Georgek5kg at aol.com]

Dear Sirs,

I was pleased to see the front page article ("In This Power Play, High-Wire 
Act Riles Ham-Radio Fans", March 23, 2004) in the Wall Street Journal about 
radio amateurs, the American Radio Relay League ("the League") and the fight 
against Broadband over Power Lines ("BPL"). The issue of radio interference from 
BPL is deserving of more attention than it has received to date, and the 
Journal is to be commended for sending a reporter out to confirm with his own ears 
that the interference claims are genuine.

However, the article did not take the logical step of extrapolating from this 
small test bed to a general deployment of BPL, with resulting widespread 
interference. What happens then? Will the BPL systems really be shut down, as the 
FCC rules require? The answer to this question is important not just to us 
radio "hams", but to other users of radio communications: police, fire, 
emergency, civilian (e.g., Red Cross), aircraft and the military.

Radio amateurs love technology, and understand it better than most. The ARRL 
and individual radio amateurs have tried hard to raise a very legitimate 
concern, early enough that future problems can be avoided. In return they deserve 
better than to be stereotyped inaccurately as a bunch of aging codgers standing 
in the way of progress.

Regards,

George I. Wagner
Amateur Extra Class License, K5KG
Licensed by the FCC since 1957
Sarasota, Florida