[Icom] Wall Street Journal Article Putting Down Hams

[John Geiger]

Didn't FEMA also come out against BPL, saying how it
would cause interference to emergency communications? 
Guess they also must be a trouble making vocal group.

I am not too worried about BPL.  Once it is
implimented, and causes enough interference to TV sets
that the general population can't watch "Survivor", we
will have an armed revolution on our hands.

73s John NE0P

--- Bruce Sugarberg <bsugarberg@core.com> wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> This Wall Street Journal article about hams is so
> negative, it is
> dangerous.  Something needs to be done to counteract
> it.
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/357ye
> 
> Here is why I think that this article is dangerous.
> 
> 1st, please read some excerpts from the article:
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> the nation's vocal but shrinking population of
> ham-radio operators, or 
> "hams" as they call themselves, are stirring up a
> war with the utility 
> industry over new power-line communications.
> 
> The FCC and the utilities say new technologies have
> eliminated the 
> interference and accuse the hams of exploiting the
> issue for their own 
> gains. "We haven't seen the sun darken and
> everything electrical turn to 
> white noise and haze during a deployment," says Matt
> Oja, an executive at 
> Progress Energy, whose test Mr. Powell visited.
> "This is a fairly vocal 
> group that has been whipped into a frenzy by their
> organization."  (ARRL).
> 
> The controversy comes at a sensitive time for the
> hams. Not too many decades 
> ago, ham-radio operators were on the cutting edge of
> communications 
> technology. In the age of e-mail, wireless Internet
> access and cellphones 
> that double as walkie-talkies, many operators worry
> that their hobby will 
> fade away.  Aging hams, who built crystal radio sets
> as kids or were radio 
> operators during World War II, are dying. Fewer
> youngsters are replacing them.
> 
> Hams always have been a quirky bunch. They haunt a
> series of short-wave 
> radio frequencies set aside for them by the federal
> government in the 1930s.
> 
> Ed Thomas, the FCC's chief engineer, says the
> commission has spent a year 
> listening to the hams' concerns about power lines
> and is getting frustrated. 
> "Why is this thing a major calamity?" he says. "And
> honestly, I'd love the 
> answer to that."
> 
> Con Ed says its system in Briarcliff Manor doesn't
> interfere with the hams 
> and maintains that, in two years of testing, it
> hasn't received one complaint.
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> If you know nothing about ham radio, what impression
> do you get of hams in
> general:  That they are a bunch of trouble-making
> old dinosaurs, standing
> in the way of progress, for no good reason.
> 
> Nothing is really said in the article about the
> public services that hams
> provide.  Or about how hams are considered a vital
> part of Homeland Security.
> 
> If you know nothing about BPL, what impression do
> you get of the FCC and
> Utilities:  That the only thing they are guilty of,
> is trying to make things
> better for all of us.
> 
> Nothing is said about how the government's own
> Federal Emergency Management
> Agency (FEMA) has come out against BPL.  Or that BPL
> has already been tested
> and banned by several countries around the world,
> such as Austria.
> 
> 73, Bruce Sugarberg WA8TNC
> ==========================
> 
> Don Rasmussen wrote:
> > Quote from the American Public Power Association; 
> > 
> > "APPA is concerned that incumbent broadband
> providers and
> > others will exaggerate potential interference
> problems as a means
> > of convincing the Commission to limit the
> effectiveness and
> > efficiency of BPL."
> >
>
==========================================================
> > Note the "and others" part. That is us - ham radio
> ops. 
> > It seems that Amateur Radio operators are being
> lumped
> > in with "incumbent broadband providers" as the
> Nemesis
> > to APPA (Power Line Assn) and their current best
> friends,
> > the FCC. That explains a lot about the hostile
> manner in
> > which we are being treated. Don't think of
> yourself in the
> > FCC's eyes as that emergency volunteer, we must
> seem more
> > like that creature from the movie "Alien" to them.
> >
>
==========================================================
> > APPA:
> > "the burden should be imposed on challengers to
> BPL to demonstrate 
> > interference in a fact-based, empirical proof. 
> > Further, to the extent that interference is
> demonstrated, there 
> > should be an attempt to accommodate BPL, even if
> it means that 
> > existing communications providers may have to
> share or transfer 
> > bandwidth."
> > 
> >
>
http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_docum
> > ent=6514287496
> > 
> > As for the FCC?
> > Ed Thomas, the FCC's chief engineer; "Why is this
> thing a major 
> > calamity?"
> > 
> > See what is happening in Manassas, Va. 
> > http://www.w4ovh.org/bplinfo.htm
> > 
> > Following note is from n8fk: 
> > I live in Manassas, Va and have filed complaints. 
> > total complaints filed by amatuers in Manassas is
> in excess of 250!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
> 
> ----
> Your Moderator: Dick Flanagan K7VC,
> icom-owner@mailman.qth.net
> Icom Users Net: Sundays, 1700Z, 14.316 MHz
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