[TenTec] Information Week Article "FCC Chairman VisitsBroadbandProject"

[Edward Crawford]

There was a very comprehensive article about this in the most recent South Eastern Repeater Association's Repeater Journal magazine. Several of the SERA ham's were involved in the recent BPL testing conducted in the Raleigh, NC area. They were working with officials from both Progress Energy and the BPL equipment vendors and a couple hams who work for Progress Energy. The testing they did used both overhead and underground lines. The hams used mobile and fixed stations to monitor the BPL signals. For the overhead segments, they heard signals between 25 and 29 MHZ. The mobiles heard signals at S-9 near the lines but it fell off quickly as they drove away and was barely audible at 400 feet away from the lines. A fixed station about a mile away using an 80 meter dipole heard the 10 meter BPL about S-6. A ham 5 miles away with a big beam on a 100 foot tower heard no signal.
On the underground segments, they reported signals between 10 and 15 MHZ. The signals were reported to be much weaker, and were audible only within 100 feet of the above ground pedestal.
They reported on a quick transmit test to see the effects on the BPL signals. A 5 watt FM signal on 29.6 MHZ completely disrupted the BPL signal, but a 100 watt FM signal only caused a momentary blip. A 100 watt CW carrier on 40 meters had no effect on the 10 meter BPL signal.
It seems the BPL equipment is very frequency agile and is able to quickly jump around anywhere in the HF spectrum as needed.
The bright spot in all this is that they report the power company and BPL providers are very cooperative and seem genuinely concerned about the possibility of causing interference to ham and emergency communications and are considering ways they can avoid or eliminate interference.
My hat is off to the SERA for their involvement in the testing and to editor Gary Pearce, KN4AQ for writing such an informative article. I just wish they would put some of the material on their website so other hams could enjoy it.
73. Ed/w4wvw   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: al_lorona at agilent.com<mailto:al_lorona at agilent.com> 
  To: tentec at contesting.com<mailto:tentec at contesting.com> 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 8:47 PM
  Subject: RE: [TenTec] Information Week Article "FCC Chairman VisitsBroadbandProject"



  It is difficult to tell exactly because of an apparent typo in the
  article which power lines the BPL is on. It appears that the BPL signal
  does not come down the 240 V drop into the home, but comes in through
  Wi-Fi (formerly called "802.11b", the 2.4 GHz wireless LAN that can
  achieve up to 11 Mbps under ideal conditions) from a nearby hot spot. 

  The article is so poorly written from a technical standpoint that it is
  difficult to tell exactly. 

  BPL is now apparently deployed in Manassas, Virginia; Sault Ste. Marie,
  Ontario; Cincinnati, Ohio; and now in North Carolina. Has anybody heard
  anything about the results of any of these deployments? How bad is the
  interference? Have hams been able to disrupt the BPL with normal
  transmissions?

  Al  W6LX



  > -----Original Message-----
  > From: tentec-bounces at contesting.com<mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com> 
  > [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Patrick 
  > A. Thompson Sr.
  > Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 4:44 PM
  > To: tentec at contesting.com<mailto:tentec at contesting.com>
  > Subject: [TenTec] Information Week Article "FCC Chairman 
  > Visits BroadbandProject"
  > 
  > 
  > 
  > More indications of how the wind is blowing in DC.
  > 
  http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1831132<http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=1831132>
  1

  Pat
  wa4tuk

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