[HIham] BPL issues: Measure noise floor now before testing starts

[Kevin C. Bogan]

On July 28, I attended a luncheon sponsored by the Hawaii Telecommunications 
Association (HTCA) at which Rick Stuller, CIO, Information Technology & 
Services, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. presented on BPL.  One of our 
local hams knows him well and introduced me to him.  Rick and my friend had 
me seated at the reserved table with them.  Rick is very friendly and 
through out  the presentation pointed out how HECO is working to make BPL 
not a problem to hams.  Other hams were in the audience.

He explained how O'ahu will have energy problems in the near future unless 
we conserve energy and manage it better.  Being able to monitor energy uses 
at premises over BPL is one application.  Of course, the other is having a 
company/vendor develop BPL for residential and commercial premises.

What I learned is that HECO has worked with Pacific Gas & Electric on BPL. 
They are working with Potomac Power which uses the same vendor and 
technology: Current Communications Group 
(http://www.currentgroup.com/OurCompany/CompanyProfile/).  CCG would run the 
BPL business.  Rick stated that CCG had worked with hams on this  They are 
supported by Cox and Panasonic.  On the diagram I saw "2-60 MHz BPL signals 
OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Digital Multiplex, if I wrote it correctly) - Ham 
carries notched."  He went on to show and explain how the BPL signal would 
start from a back haul point and go out on 12k lines into the community with 
bridges over the transformers.  The ham bands would have medium and low 
voltage notches.  The BPL into the premises would be on medium voltage lines 
with 2-3 MPSec speed, raw speed of 6.  Next year, they plan to go to a raw 
speed of 100 with 60-70 MB/sec throughput into the premises.

Because they use it for monitoring electrical usage, the system has been on 
24/7 for a while now.  There are five homes within a half mile of the 
McCully Substation that are using BPL.  Future plans are for testing of 
1,000 homes.  The actual unit used on the premise is Netgear's Home Plug. 
Rick stated that hams had worked with it.  He told of a case where five hams 
had complained of it on the mainland.  One ham's problem turned out not to 
be BPL and the other four now subscribe to the service and use Home Plug. 
Rick stated that when techs go in to analyze the signal they cannot hear it. 
It is down in the noise.  He stated that they have to be taught what to look 
for and given special equipment to discover the BPL signal.

After the presentation, I swept the neighborhood around the McCully 
Substation.  All I heard was the usual noise.  The neighborhood is mixed 
residential with a shopping mall next to the substation.  I used an IC-706 
MK II (G), Ironhorse stick antenna in the middle of the top of my car.  I 
scanned the 20m band with my 20m stick antenna.  I also scanned with the 
same antenna on 40, 15, and 10.  I heard nothing.  I tuned to WWVH on 10 MHz 
and went through the neighborhood again.  I heard the NIST time hack and 
report through the usual noise.  I next rode out of the test area through a 
similar area of the greater neighborhood and only heard the usual noise.  I 
kept monitoring the time hack as I drove back to work in Hawaii Kai (East 
Honolulu).  The usual noise only abated somewhat as I drove clear of the 
heavily residential area with the overhead lines.  Hawaii Kai has the lines 
below ground for the most part.  I believe Kapolei where the other test site 
is located also has its lines underground.

Please pass to me any questions you may have and I will talk with Rick about 
it.

I and my friend asked Rick if he would speak at the Ko'olau ARC and 
Emergency ARC club meetings on BPL.  He said he knew he would be inundated 
with very technical questions and would like to wait until  the CCG engineer 
comes out again, so that both could come and explain it.

The CCG website gives this profile of their company:
"Current Communications is the nation's premier BPL service provider, 
offering broadband services to residential and small business customers 
primarily utilizing BPL equipment and technology provided by its affiliate 
Current TechnologiesTM.
The service, Current BroadbandTM, is an "always on," high speed Internet 
access connection that customers access by plugging their computer into the 
existing power outlets in any room of their home or small business through a 
special power line modem. Current Broadband service provides the same high 
speed connection when sending and receiving information and allows multiple 
computers inside a home or business to access the Internet simultaneously.

Current Communications works closely with electric utility companies in 
installing BPL technology on electric distribution lines to provide 
broadband services using Current Technologies BPL equipment. "

What we need NOW is to measure the noise floor before the testing goes wide 
spread.  Please take off any filters, noise blankers, etc. and listen to the 
different bands.  Keep a detailed log of bands, time of day, S-unit strength 
of noise, any strange sounds (with freq).  When we complain that we have 
interference, we will be able to show how we know it is interference.  I 
have been told that HECO  is committed to making BPL work.  Please do not 
attack them.  We will be as assertive as necessary.

We need to form BPL teams for each island.  Mike Burger, AH7R; Walt 
Niemczura, AH6QO; John Peters, N1ER; and a few others have indicated that 
they would like to be part of the team or O'ahu.  Please let me know if you 
wish to join this team and let me know at what level of involvement you will 
work as I am looking for an individual to lead the team.  The team will also 
be working with Ed Hare, W1RFI.  Many individuals have provided info as 
things have occurred, thank you.  Now is the time to make this a concerted, 
coordinated effort.

I know that Bob Schneider, AH6J, has been very active on the Big Island. 
Those on the BI, please contact Bob directly (ah6j at arrl.net)

I suggest that the team be the focal point of information, queries, advice, 
etc. instead of inundating the various email reflectors.  Then the team 
leader can issue advisories, bulletins, and reports in a concise and 
coherent manner.

If this effort develops a large enough mass, I will create a yahoogroup to 
facilitate the communications.

I will send this message out on the ARRL email server for the subscribed 
members and will include the recent information that has been published 
about the upcoming expanded testing on O'ahu.  I apologize if you receive 
multiple copies of this message.

Kevin C. Bogan, AH6QO
ARRL Pacific Section Manager and Section Emergency Coordinator



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