Howdy!

Last weekend I attended the Austin, Texas Summerfest, a ham get-together and
the
ARRL West Gulf Division convention. There were about a thousand hams there,
with a great flea-market, and several presentations including one by your
truly on packet radio.

The most interesting presentation was the ARRL president's forum, where ARRL
president Jim Haynie talked to a large room packed with hundreds of hams.
Most of his time was spent talking about the BPL (broadband over powerline)
issue, the most serious threat the hobby has ever encountered.

Mr. Haynie showed us a short film taken in New York state, where the
broadband over powerline system is being tried out on a test basis. The film
was taken by ARRL engineer Ed Hare. It showed Ed driving around the
neighborhood where the BPL system was being tried out, with an HF radio in
his car. He had an HF antenna on the car of course, for the TS-430 he used
for this test.

As Ed drove along, he would slowly turn the dial on the HF rig, across the
20 meter band. At no time could a human voice or digital signal be heard -
only one "birdie" of interference after another, all across the band. Ed
switched over to 15 meters with the same results. No human voice, no CW, no
digital sigs, just "birdies" from the broadband over powerline system that
was being tested.

In the film, ARRL engineer Ed Hare was driving down the street, recieving
interference from powerlines alongside the road. In your hamshack, the
interference will come right into your shack, radiating from all of the
wiring in the walls. - A much worse situation than the one Ed was
demonstrating for us in the film.

If BPL is implemented nationwide, as is being proposed, then US hams will be
wanting to sell their HF equipment to foriegn hams, because the equipment
will be useless here in the United States. We will have to kiss HF Amateur
Radio goodbye.

Considering the damage BPL would do to Ham Radio and several other services
that utilize HF frequencies, with the overwhelming RF pollution it
generates, you would think that the whole thing would be shot down in short
order. - Unfortunately this is not the case. The federal government is under
enormous pressure to make universal broadband Internet access a reality, and
BPL is the only system that shows any potential for delivering this in the
near future.

What Mr. Haynie of the ARRL was telling us was that Ham Radio in the US is
currently in a fight for its life, and it is going to be a very tough fight.

I am sorry to have to report such news, but it needs to get around. This is
a serious situation, requiring a serious response.

President Haynie recommended that hams write thier congressmen, and to
remember to use the word "pollution" when referring to the interference of
BPL, as this term has great weight in washingtons' political circles. Its a
word even a congressman can understand, I suppose!

Also: this would be a good time to join the ARRL if you are not currently a
member. They have some of the political apparatus needed to fight this
battle in Washington, but will need funding. If you are already a member,
consider making a donation.

This is a serious issue.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL
Director: USPacket.Net

http://www.uspacket.net