NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 16, 2005--An informational and lobbying campaign by local radio amateurs has headed off a broadband over power line (BPL) technology deal with a small Texas town that owns and operates the local electric utility. The city council in Castroville--a town of about 3500 inhabitants--voted 3-2 August 8 not to go into the BPL business with Broadband Horizons.
"For now, at least, BPL is a dead issue in Castroville, Texas," said ARRL member Ray Martinez, N5VRE, who credits the Amateur Radio community with researching BPL and helping inform decision makers and town residents of their concerns regarding its interference potential. Martinez says their message in letters to the editor and in contacts with city council members was that, while radio amateurs tend to support and embrace new technology, their collective opposition to the BPL proposal was "related solely to the interference issue."
But while hams in Castroville were successful, the same BPL purveyor was able to chalk up a victory in the City of Flatonia, which also owns its own utility system. The town's BPL experience was the focus of a very upbeat report August 16 on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" radio program. NPR had contacted ARRL while producing the BPL segment, and the report that aired included a brief comment by ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, addressing BPL's interference potential.
"BPL that operates at the FCC limits can and does cause strong local interference problems on any spectrum it's using," declared Hare, who got approximately eight seconds in the approximately six-minute NPR piece.
But the BPL industry, NPR's Wade Goodwyn went on to assert, "has come up with a technological fix" to BPL interference to radio amateurs in the form of notching. Hare contends that what the network neglected to include from the much longer interview he gave NPR were his further observations that notching in and of itself is "not sufficient" to reduce interference to Amateur Radio or other HF users.
"We stressed several time and in several ways that notching helps, but it still leaves some interference to Amateur Radio," Hare recounted, "and that in system after system we have seen, international shortwave broadcast spectrum was not notched."
According to NPR, Broadband Horizons' founder Mike Bates is working with a dozen small Texas towns with publicly owned utility systems to bring them the "benefits of BPL." Included in the NPR report were BPL-flattering interviews with Flatonia Mayor Lori Berger, who called the $200,000 BPL deal "critical to the town's future," and with a local woman who lauded the system's ability to quickly download e-mailed photos of her great grandchildren.
The Flatonia system, in operation for two weeks, is capable of speeds "comparable to cable broadband," the NPR report said. Midway between Houston and San Antonio, Flatonia boasts a dozen ham radio licensees among its some 1500 residents.
ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says he was especially dismayed to hear Goodwyn's report, particularly after he and Hare had expended considerable effort communicating their concerns about the technology to Goodwyn.
"I find it deeply disappointing to hear his sales pitch, in which major known flaws in BPL schemes are given one passing comment," Pitts reacted. "NPR has a history of presenting fair, whole and balanced information on topics, but this piece lacked all of those qualities."
Pitts said among other main points Hare made in an hour-long interview August 2 with NPR were that the only systems successful in avoiding interference are those that shun spectrum occupied by licensed services. Also, he noted, the FCC did not "allow" BPL in its October 2004 Order, as NPR suggested. It set guidelines for BPL to operate within existing Part 15 rules, and one stipulation was that it not cause harmful interference.
"Hams are not against BPL," Pitts stressed. "We are against the interference problems it causes." While some BPL system manufacturers have worked with Amateur Radio on this point, he said, "most just wave their hands and mumble about notching, which has been shown not to work reliably."
According to Hare, while one or two small BPL feasibility trials have notched the ham bands successfully only "after spending months tweaking their systems," notching efforts with similar BPL equipment in other systems have fallen short of the mark. "The BPL industry is far from demonstrating that notching is a practical and effective way to address interference," he concluded.
In its own 2003 comments to the FCC in the BPL proceeding, National Public Radio said that while it supported the FCC's overall objective of promoting the development of additional broadband systems, "the Commission must ensure that any use of BPL technology will not disrupt existing services," and, in particular, interfere with radio receivers "through which the American people receive important news, information, and cultural services."
NPR's comments even cited an ARRL study that concluded BPL poses "a significant threat to Amateur Radio operations (and broadcasting) in the HF and low-VHF (TV channels 2-6) region."
Meanwhile in the Texas capital of Austin, Senate Bill 5 (SB 5), a piece of legislation that promotes and encourages BPL is awaiting the signature of Texas Gov Rick Perry. ARRL North Texas Section Manager Tom Blackwell, N5GAR, notes that the measure includes provisions to shut down interfering BPL systems.
"BPL operators shall comply with all applicable federal laws, including those protecting licensed spectrum users from interference by BPL systems," SB 5 says. "The operator of a radio frequency device shall be required to cease operating the device upon notification by a Federal Communications Commission or Public Utilities Commission representative that the device is causing harmful interference. Operation shall not resume until the condition causing the harmful interference has been corrected."
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