[TowerTalk] BPL article lacks insight

K4IA at aol.com K4IA at aol.com
Thu Jan 8 12:52:57 EST 2004


The problem with the article is: here we go again . . .

The author acts like Hams (a bunch of weird geeks with a strange hobby who 
screw up your TV set and have ugly antennas on their homes and cars) ) are the 
only ones affected, and, by the way, FEMA is concerned.  I am sending a copy of 
this to the author so he can comment, but I suspect he just doesn't know what 
he doesn't know.  

Take a look at a frequency allocation chart like the one here: 
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.html

We are only a small subset of spectrum users.  Every single hertz is 
occupied.  How come the author doesn't interview or mention the other users?  Even the 
ARRL is a bit guilty of this.  Instead of emphasizing the disaster this is 
for all radio users, they spin the dial in the middle of 20 meters where the 
background conversation could hardly be described as "important" and, to someone 
who is not used to hearing SSB, the conversation is unintelligible anyway.  
Why not spin the dial on top of the BBC, or HF ground-to-air, or navigation 
beacons (who wants to be lost in an airplane?) or maritime mobile, or police, fire 
and rescue, or any of the other users of the HF spectrum?

If this boils down to hams vs. BPL, we lose big.  All discussion of BPL has 
got to be in a much broader context than ham radio.   I can only assume the 
other services are not howling bloody murder because they do not understand what 
is coming.  

Radio k4ia
Craig "Buck"
Fredericksburg, Virginia USA


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