[GreenKeys] Bad News for Amateur and Military Radio

[Bob McConnell]

Don Robert House wrote:
> Now when you loose power you can also loose internet connectivity and 
> telephone service all at once.  Not to mention putting broadband 
> interference all over the country.
> 
> DirecTV said it would bundle broadband-over-powerline high-speed 
> Internet and VoIP with its digital TV services to about 1.8 million 
> homes in the Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas region by early 2008.
> 
> Benefits of broadband-over-powerline include faster upload and download 
> speeds compared to many cable and DSL broadband services: up to 10Mb 
> versus 8Mb, according to Current. The broadband service is symmetric, 
> which means upload speeds are as fast as download speeds.

Hi Don,

Broadband over power line is a travesty. There is no way those 
unshielded wires can carry those signals without radiating them all over 
the floor and sky. Quite simply, power lines at those frequencies are 
perfect antennae. Every field trial has caused interference with public 
safety, air traffic, commercial and amateur communications, not only in 
that local area, but even half a continent away. Most of the utilities 
that have done field trials have given up on it. Only the equipment 
manufacturers are still pushing it, mostly by spending lots of money to 
lobby the regulators to ignore all of their engineers who have filed 
reports indicating how bad it is.

I have used other power line communications packages, and on a college 
campus there was no way to install two separate systems without them 
talking to each other. The 20 KHz carrier used by Echelon was radiated 
very well. If all of the power lines are in metallic conduit or 
underground, they might be able to get it to work.

For more information, check out the ARRL web site. They have been 
tracking this problem for a few years now.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP