[RFI] Broadband over Power Line (BPL) radio interference

[K4IA at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/16/2004 14:48:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
w1rfi at arrl.org writes:

The few  posts I have see from hams offering to "solve" the BPL problem by 
parking  500-watt mobile stations under the lines or engaging in some good old 
target  practice should alert anyone that such information should not be 
published  openly


 
 

Ok, clearly shooting out their lights is illegal and subjects you to  
criminal penalties but . . . 
 
What is wrong with operating a 500 watt mobile station under their  lines?
 
1.  You are exercising your government-given right conferred upon you  by the 
FCC. Are we supposed to run and hide?  Are hams only allowed to  operate 
where they don't interfere with unlicensed services?  Am I to stop  transmitting 
because my neighbors touch-light is flashing?  That turns the  rules upside 
down.  I think not.
 
2.  By operating under their lines, you are giving the BPL proponents  chance 
to *prove* their system is not going to crash in the presence of other  
signals.  After all, they make the claim, we are giving them the  opportunity to 
actually try it out.  Seems like we are providing a public  service.  If they 
are right, they have nothing to fear and we won't be  bothering them.  If they 
are wrong, see point 3 below.
 
3.  Widows, pension funds, retirement accounts and others will invest  
millions of dollars in this technology only to lose their shirts when it all  falls 
apart.  If the system fails under stress-testing, we provide a  valuable 
public service and save all those unsophisticated investors serious  financial 
embarrassment.
 
Seems to me all this nonsense about whether we should measure their  signal's 
field strengths in micro-volts at 30 meters or 50 meters from the line  is 
playing into their hands.  It is technobabble.  No one cares if it  interferes 
with hams.  The system works or it doesn't.  If it doesn't  work, it is dead.
 
 

 
Radio  k4ia
"Buck"
Fredericksburg, Virginia  USA