KØHB wrote:
On Jun 19, 8:48 pm, AF6AY wrote:

to prove they still "have what it takes to lead their membership."


But Newington (and the BoD) are not there to lead the membership
(memberships don't need to be led). They are there to serve the
membership.

In any case, engaging the FCC in court battles on hollow issues like
BPL neither leads NOR serves the Amateur Radio service. It needlessly
squanders what modest remaining remaining respect we have at the
government agency we depend on for our continued existence. (Can you
say "bite the hand which feeds us"?)


My assessment of the situation is that the efforts - especially the
ones by W1RFI, have paid off.

There appears to have been a push for BPL that was based on other than
technical rationale.

When other rationales than technology are used to promote a technical
solution, we sometimes get white elephant solutions. Like BPL.

We have the luxury of looking at the situation as it exists now, not as
it would be if no effort was spent in opposition to it.

I find the situation similar to childhood vaccinations. Children were
dying or being harmed by various diseases, so we came up with vaccines.
They worked, and many lives were saved. Now some people question just
why we should be vaccinating children. "Gee, no one is getting sick, why
do we have to do this?" Just a thought.

Without any ARRL protest, it is very likely that there would have been
a lot more deployment of BPL. A lot of Amateurs would be having their
service disrupted by BPL. A lot of BPL customers would be having their
service disrupted by amateurs.

Problem is that management technique is to not step back and reassess,
not to stop digging when they find themselves in a hole; but to stick
to their guns.The promoters would ride BPL right into the ground.

With no opposition, (ARRL keeping out of the issue) what would be the
response to the BPL promoters to the fact that we would shut down BPL
every time we keyed up?

I'll bet it would be an attempt to disallow the Amateur
communications. We can talk about licensed services and part 15, but
that would not stop the issue from going to court. And if the ARRL kept
out of that, is there any doubt of who would win? Maybe we could get a
public defender to do something pro bono for us? A likely scenario
would be an injunction against amateur operation in areas served by BPL
until they figured things out.

At that point, Hams would be sending angry emails wondering "Just where
on earth was the ARRL in this mess? They should have been doing something!"


So while I agree that BPL is a technical failure, and will eventually
go away, it had/has the potential to wreak a lot of havoc over a long
period, if not opposed.



- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -