Topband: How to File BPL Comments With the FCC

[Donald Chester]

> >Your comments will likely not appear until the next
> >business day since it takes them awhile to process everything.
> >Please DO comment before the August 20 window closes!

>I got some time Friday night late and wrote my Reply
>Comments to the UPLC Comments. Just as I was ready
>to transmit them to FCC, I saw the following on the ECFS
>website, around 2-3AM Saturday morning:
>
>"The ECFS will be unavailable for (sic) scheduled maintenance
>from Saturday Agugust (sic) 16th, 2003 until Monsday (sic)
>August 18th, 2003."

>Note: As of 4 AM on Monday the 18th, the site is still
>partially non-functional. It now 'accepts' my comments but
>returns an error message when I click on the confirmation
>bar on the next page. I will keep trying. I hope this site
>is not still broken when the 20th rolls around!
>

I would wait until  late Monday evening and check again instead of 
continuing to click on the site.  I notice many comments appear in multiple 
copies.  I suspect people trying to file keep getting error messages, and 
each time they click again, another copy of the comment registers.  I seem 
to recall one comment that appears about 20 times!

>I spent quite a while writing my comments, and tried to
>make the point that UPLC only states they have not
>received any interference *reports*! Well, of course not!
>I pointed out that folks who receive interference might not
>know how to identify this new modulation type and might
>therefore be hesitant to report it, lacking specifics and
>therefore feeling unlikely ro receive any remediation from
>FCC.

I wonder if anyone in the local community other that the parties involved 
with the "tests" has even been notified that BPL testing is going on, or 
whether there are even any active HF hams in  the affected area.  I'm sure I 
could connect a spark transmitter to my quarterwave 160m vertical and run it 
for a while before the complaints started rolling in.

>I also pointed out that skip signals only follow propagation
>and do not respect national borders, and that, in addition
>to the howls of protest to be expected in the US, it is
>likely that foreign governments may be filing protests
>with the US as well.

Complaints could be lauched against the US for violation of international 
treaties.  However, the BPL lobby is well entrenched intertationally, and 
I'm sure there are BPL cheerleaders in the governments of other countries 
besides the US. Check out the website and its links at

http://www.plugtek.com/index.shtml.

Israel just approved BPL tests.  View:

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=714612&fid=942).

Maybe the Isreali hams will be able to provide the world with what BPL 
interests have been reluctant to discuss so far: real working ham radio 
interference test results.

Don K4KYV

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail