In article , Alun
writes:

"Jim Hampton" wrote in
:

Len,

The purpose was, obviously, to let eveyone know what we knew in the
first place - BPL *will* cause interference. Whatever you may think,
this will also cause interference to low band VHF users as well. I
shan't get into who uses that.

I don't know who you have in mind, but the state police use it here. That
may be enough to kill BPL right there.

Not enough in my viewpoint. Nearly all states use the 30-50 MHz
bands for highway patrol communications as well as 150+ MHz.
Access BPL is not described (so far) as having radiated RF
byproducts above 88 MHz so the first, oldest, and now least-
used PLMRS bands at 30 to 50 MHz will be the only ones
(supposedly) affected.

Fringe-area "low band" TV receivers for channels 2 through 6
would be affected by BPL. That's a few hundred thousand plus
in the rural areas that are supposed to be the BPL broadband
treat. [Damocles' sword again, cutting two ways]

The majority of those affected by BPL would be the HF users.
The federal government has a whole potfull of fixed frequency
assignments in HF...as can be seen in the tabulations of the
NTIA Phase 1 study and in the Comments of ARINC on docket
04-37. [50,000+ or somewhere in that number region] ARINC,
true to its founding prior to WW2, is a private aviation service
running some of the HF comm facilities for long distance flights.
ARINC is very big in other areas such as acting as the
standards Hq for commercial air carriers, including the US (and,
by adoption, ICAO) radionavigation systems technical standards.

Note: Cedar Rapids, IA, has long been the home town of Collins
Radio. Collins is still busy making civil as well as military
avionics although they've been out of the amateur radio market
area for years. It shouldn't hurt a bit to have a major avionics
corporation in the area with a strong amateur radio identification
and HF commercial radio identification to help the fight against
BPL.

The USA broadcast industry is against BPL even though the
major money income comes from AM and FM BC band ad
sales...neither band expected to be interfered with by BPL.
There's support in the industry for RF-pollution-free bandspace
for US SW BC band broadcasters even though they are a drop
in the program bucket for broadcasting. BPL will make about
a third of all SW BC band listening impossible in the USA due
to RFI.

There's all sorts of objections to BPL from the ESTABLISHED
radio services, amateur included. Nonetheless, Access BPL
is still going to exist...at least for a while. The Chairman of the
FCC loves it (politically, certainly not for technical or legal
reasons) and the Acting Secretary of the NTIA politically loves
it because the USA President (for now) loves it. Both have
made public statements to that regard.

Oddly enough, despite the urban myth of some objecting to BPL,
the FCC does NOT have any power to stop Access BPL!

All the FCC can do is put limits on the incidental RF radiation
from a BPL system, then enforce it. The FCC already does
that with other communications service providers (cable TV in
main but also telephone cable and incidental RF radiation from
electric power lines). The enforcement is going to be a total
bitch of a job for BPL. The FCC is way, way down on facilities
to test and measure BPL installations and is going to have to
really pork up its budget to come close to good measurements
in urban areas especially. It will be a HUGE task.

There's no good signs evident that the FCC is coming even
close to realizing the gargantuan task of monitoring BPL of the
future. Mikey Powell and company have been sold on BPL "for
the masses" and that's that...a big mass.

The only perceivable way to fight BPL is now after-the-fact, like
the Cedar Rapids group did, apparently successfully. But, that
takes a concerted group effort in each amateur radio locality.
ARRL can't be dependent as the "big gun" to fight BPL. They
aren't staffed or budgeted to oversee all the possible BPL
installation testing in the USA. The League's budget would have
to quadruple or quintuple to approach being able to do that...and
still not be enough.

Individual industry and local government (state on down) groups
haven't shown they have enough clout to make a difference in the
Commission's enthusiasm for BPL. Pandora's Box has already
been opened. Lots of such Boxes in all of the 50 states. It's
going to be one helluva big task to close them.

Say goodbye to low-level HF signals if BPL comes to your QTH,
at least for a while. Remember which administration brought out
the spectre of Access BPL to this nation while you and everyone
else are at it.