[RFI] BPL--FCC Proposed Rules//We Need to Respond

[Pete Smith]

At 12:32 PM 3/5/04 -0800, N6KJ wrote:
>The BPL proponents continue to insist that power lines will not radiate
>like an antenna and that their equipment appears as a "point-source"
>radiator.  If that's true, then why is it possible to place an AM
>BC band radio near the electrical outlet in a dorm room and receive a
>low-voltage broadcast that originated who knows how far away?   This doesn't
>sound like a "point-source" to me.  Does it to anyone else?


Amusing, indeed.  I was on the staff of WESU in Middletown, Connecticut 
1959-1963.  When I arrived, the station used a 5-watt AM carrier current 
system, and we were heard all over campus.  It wasn't just a question of 
"close to an outlet" -- we could be heard just about anywhere inside the 
campus electrical system, though with varying quality.  We switched to 
low-power FM in about 1961, but the old carrier current system certainly 
demonstrated how well all that wiring worked as an antenna.


73, Pete N4ZR
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