[Antennas] BPL

[Jay Eimer]

BPL WILL die of its own dead weight, but it may take a while.

First, when the public figures out that any high school hacker with a
shortwave receiver and a computer can "read your mail" (snoop packets),
the privacy nuts will go nuts.

Second, when they figure out that any "appliance" that has a
microprocessor in it could conceivably connect to the internet and
"phone home", the privacy nuts will go even MORE nuts.  (No, I haven't
heard of any plans regarding this, but M$ once hyped a "connected home"
with a bar code scanner and an internet connection in your refrigerator,
that would automatically order your groceries - pie in the sky, yes; the
geeks love the idea, and the privacy nuts will freak).

Third, if it ends up not paying financially (and there is significant
hardware costs, especially in low density (rural) areas (so it's really
not Powell's vaunted "rural solution"), then some power companies will
subsidize it with a "surcharge" on your regular electric bill.  That
will get the electric customers riled up if they don't also use the
internet access.  "Why should poor city folk who don't have dial-up be
paying for the broadband for rich suburbanites?" would make a great
anti-BPL campaign slogan.

Fourth, many utilities (either through being "public" or through their
corporation commission or other rate-setter) will not be allowed to do
#3.  This makes it an economic disaster if they don't get market
penetration.

Finally, 75% (or more) of the country will never see BPL, because the
only reason they're pushing it NOW is to beat some emerging technologies
that are just "not quite" as mature.  They figure to get in and make
their bucks in 2-5 years, then either subsidize (see #3 above) or let it
float along in areas where they have good density and market
penetration.  Technological breakthroughs (that are already achieved,
just working the bugs out) will allow DSL to "go farther" shortly
(remove/reduce the current limit of only a few miles between switching
center and customer, and wireless direct to customer (or to a
neighborhood "box on a pole" that could then distribute short range
through the power lines, but the long haul over the air).

And yes, I'd love to go totally digital, too, but not yet!  There's too
many countries I haven't confirmed yet, that digital will make a
financial hardship to keep them on the air.  Besides, if you ARE in a
high density BPL area, even digital modes will have problems.

Jay
AD5PE

-----Original Message-----
From: antennas-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:antennas-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Robert Lay
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 18:10
To: Alan C. Zack; CQ-Contest
Cc: Tower Talk; Antennas; DX List
Subject: Re: [Antennas] BPL


Dear Alan,

Reading your post, I almost lost sight of the fact that this is a ham
radio forum - Hi!

Here's my opinion on BPL - either it will die of its own dead weight, or
it will turn out to be a big paper tiger. In other words, the power
industry isn't really that interested in it, themselves. They just
happen to own the physical plant. Even if they get into it, it's only
because they make a few pennies out of it here and there. It may turn
out to be a bigger pain in the butt than they need.

Insofar as the much discussed interference issue goes, I've heard one
scare story after another for years on the subject, but until I see how
the entire short wave community reacts to it, how can I get excited? The
users of the other 95% of the HF spectrum are going to be hurting a lot
more than us hams. If it starts hurting services that have direct
connections into every level of government, then we'll see how long the
honeymoon lasts between Powell and BPL. Personally, I'm hoping that ham
radio moves into the digital modes, entirely.

Bob Lay (W9DMK), Dahlgren, VA
w9dmk at crosslink.net
Home Pages: http://www.qsl.net/w9dmk
http://zaffora.f2o.org/W9DMK/W9dmk.html
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/albania/784


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