[RFI] BPL, NPRM comments

[Jim Jarvis]

Folks,

AMSAT has senior people fine-tuning their formal response to the
NPRM, as we speak.  It will be filed electronically, and hand
delivered to the commission in DC on Monday.  

One of the AMSAT arguments, which has thusfar not seen much 
discussion is intermodulation products.  That is, mixing of
other services WITH BPL in poor power system connections.
These abound.

The FCC, in its part 15 language, suggests that for signals
up to 10MHz, devices or systems must prove they're compliant
with mixing products up to 500MHz.... 50 times the highest
frequency of interest.  

It's pretty clear the FCC's mind is made up.  But it's bad
policy, not based in technical merit, and lacking in general
investment value.  The FCC has abrogated its regulatory role
in this case, and become a cheerleader.

It will be a minor issue in the elections, I'm sure, but it's 
an example of a poor effort at establishing national industrial 
policy.  

N2EA
Marketing Manager, AMSAT
jimjarvis at ieee.org