[Elecraft] 3rd K2 and BPL

[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft]

Hi Tim,

Don't panic. We're a long way from dooms day :-) . Significant BPL 
deployment is several years off even in the most optimistic plans by 
power line companies, and they face extremely strong competition from 
the faster and cheaper DSL and Cable systems that are already in place 
in most of the communities that we live. Economic reality will be the 
strongest force against its deployment. To be honest, I think it will 
receive limited deployment and will be more of an irritant as they 
deploy it on a limited basis, and then shut it down due to a lack of 
profitability, than a major problem to ham radio.
 
It is questionable weather they can make it economically profitable. We 
already have double speed DSL at my home for $49 a month and regular DSL 
is only $29 a month ($19.95 in some areas). DSL, Cable and wireless 
internet solutions will only get faster and cheaper while BPL is pretty 
much stuck at a mediocre speed and has high capital equipment and 
maintenance costs. On top of that the ARRL has made it clear they will 
aggressively pursue those systems that cause harmful interference, 
creating more uncertainty for those at the power companies that have to 
look at the profit and loss potential of their BPL deployments. In its 
released rules the FCC did not relax the part 15 emissions limits, and 
they -did- include strong requirements to the power companies to include 
major interference mitigation capabilities into their BPL systems. This 
gives us several tools to keep things under control.

To be honest I think the FCC passed this more for competitive reasons to 
keep the DSL and cable guys honest than to actually push out a new broad 
band technology of doubtful economic viability. Time will tell on how 
much hassle it is to us, but I think that even in the worst case 
scenario you will have had time to build, use and sell many K2s (and 
other new products from us) before you would notice any major impact to 
your daily operating on the air. :-) If I ran my businesses from a 
position of fear I would have never started any. I'm an optimistic guy 
in general, and I've found that during my past 33 years as a ham that 
most threats to our hobby (and other areas like the Y2000 panic that 
fizzled out) have turned out to be must less of a problem than we 
originally thought. This is one we certainly have to stay on top of, but 
I think it is manageable. We're certainly not running for the hills yet 
at Elecraft central. We have a lot of goodies in the design pipeline :-)

The bottom line: Keep on building and enjoy ham radio :-)

To the rest of the list: Let's not get into a major debate on BPL again. 
Its OK to post some -short- answers to Tim's inquiry today, but if 
volume gets too high, and certainly after today, I'll limit discussion 
on this topic in the interest of keeping list traffic under control :-)

73, Eric  WA6HHQ
Elecraft List Moderator
-------------------

nz7c at cox.net wrote:

>Hello folks -
>Well, it's been a long while since I've been on this reflector but I  am getting the fever to build again (this would be my 3rd K2). However, I find lately I am more reticent to spend money on equipment because of the eventual "BPL threat effect".  So I am curious to hear from any on the reflector who are truly well-versed in this field : 1 - Many say that regardless of the FCC, BPL is not a threat because it is not economically feasible - witness attempts in Europe which were abandoned because of economic infeasibility. 2 - Others eschew the "it's all over for the ham bands" view.  Is there anyone close to the BPL world that has some good solid input / conjecture  (vs uninformed gripes :-) on this before I invest in another K2 project? Thanks in advance and I hope this topic is OK with Wayne and Eric.
>73/Tim NZ7C
>
>_
>  
>