[K3PZN-List] Fwd: [QRP-L] BPL: Interesting Meeting Summary you will find interesting!!!
Curt Milton
[email protected]
Fri, 23 Apr 2004 09:39:40 -0700 (PDT)
I read this interesting post on recent BPL experience,
that will give some insight into the real world. Note
these are grass roots amateurs involved working to
collect info I suspect in a nearby neighborhood.
curt wb8yyy
--- [email protected] wrote:
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [QRP-L] BPL: Interesting Meeting Summary
> you will find interesting!!!
> Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 08:39:11 -0400
>
> Guys,
> Dave, N2DH, attended the Yates Amateur Radio Club
> located in Pen Yan, NY,
> the other night and here is his summary. Please read
> the whole summary as
> there are parts very revealing!
> You might remember that Dave went to Pen Yan at the
> end of March to check
> if what the NY Times said was true that there was no
> BPL interference in Pen
> Yan. Dave also made an audio recording of what he
> heard (see the Rochester
> VHF Group's web site, http://www.rvhfg.com/ .)
> Dave also encourages everybody to submit a comment
> to FCC but remember
> it must be submitted by May 3!!! Best part is that
> the comments can be made
> on-line! Dave or I can email you the correct
> proceedure. You may also review
> some of the 400 comments made and steal or emebelish
> those comments.
>
> 73,
> Tom, kv2x
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Hallidy [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 12:40 PM
>
> "All-
> I visited Penn Yan again last night (Tuesday, April
> 20), at the
> invitation
> of the Yates Amateur Radio Club. It was their
> monthly meeting, and the
> topic was the BPL trial currently being run in the
> city of Penn Yan.
>
> The primary speaker was Rick Ayers KB2DMK, a Penn
> Yan local who had
> been
> involved in the testing, both pre- and
> post-deployment, to measure any
> interference. Rick's report of his findings will be
> available later,
> possibly as early as late today. Also speaking at
> the meeting were Dave
> Simmons KB2ITN (the ham who was quoted in the Wall
> Street Journal article
> on
> March 23 as being satisfied that there was no
> problem with interference
> in
> Penn Yan), and a representative of DVI- Data
> Ventures Inc (the service
> provider in Penn Yan) named John Loew (or Low, or
> Lowe- he never gave me
> his
> card or spelled his name). John's responsibility at
> DVI is business
> development, he is not a technical person.
>
> When my wife and I got to Penn Yan, we had the
> receiver on in the truck,
> and
> could, as we expected, detect the BPL interference
> just as it had been on
> my
> previous visit- over S9 on 24.9MHz as I drove to the
> meeting location (a
> church near the trial area).
>
> It should be noted here that Simmons and Loew
> arrived at the meeting at
> least 20 minutes late, together, and came in during
> Ayers presentation.
>
> Ayers explained how he measured the interference,
> how he had gone to
> Allentown, PA (unannounced) to measure it there and
> get a comparison to
> the
> levels seen in Penn Yan, and that, after all his
> work was completed, he
> concluded that there was a serious interference
> problem in Penn Yan.
> Rick
> was asked questions by a number of the members
> present, and did his best
> to
> answer them all. He then turned the meeting over to
> Loew and Simmons,
> who
> basically stated that they were confident that the
> new "notching
> technique"
> from Amperion would solve all of the interference
> issues. Several
> people
> asked them questions, including me- I asked Loew why
> there was no
> experimental license for the Penn Yan trial, and he
> said he had been
> concerned about that, but that it was an Amperion
> question- I agreed. I
> also asked if the Amperion boxes had Part 15
> compliance stickers on
> them,
> and if so, where they were located. Loew and
> Simmons replied that they
> thought so, but weren't sure where they would be,
> probably on the inside.
> I
> reminded them that FCC states that the stickers must
> be in a
> "conspicuous
> location" and that inside the box wasn't such a
> location. Loew stated
> that
> the people should not be concerned, they (DVI) were
> committed to an
> interference-free system in Penn Yan. He was then
> asked what people
> could
> do if they felt they needed to complain to DVI about
> interference so that
> it
> could get taken care of. His reply was, "You can
> call the Operations
> Center." When asked for the phone number, he
> replied, "I don't have it-
> call me instead." and GAVE US HIS CELL PHONE
> NUMBER! I asked him
> how
> the
> company expected to make any money supplying this
> service to the rural
> customers (there were a number of people from well
> outside the city
> present), and his reply was "WE NEVER STATED THAT WE
> WOULD BE
> SUPPLYING
> BPL
> TO THE FARMERS SPREAD MILES APART- WE'RE DEPLOYING
> THE
> SERVICE IN SMALL
> CITIES AND TOWNS." I then reminded him of FCC
> Chairman Powell's
> statement
> when the NPRM was released "I am optimistic and
> welcome the day when
> every
> electrical outlet will have the potential to offer
> high-speed broadband
> and
> a plethora of high-tech applications to all
> Americans." His comment was
> (this is beautiful!) "I read Chairman Powell's
> statements every day- he
> never said that."
>
> Several members then started asking me questions
> (they had been to our
> club's website and heard the recording there), and I
> did my best to
> answer
> them. My main point in being there was to make sure
> that these people,
> if
> they had experienced interference, would lodge
> complaints to the FCC, and
> to
> make sure that they understood the importance of
> commenting on the NPRM.
> So
> my thrust was there. But I did offer to let anyone
> who hadn't heard the
> interference yet, come out to my truck after the
> meeting and I'd give them
> a
> demo.
>
> At this point, the topic had been pretty well
> covered, so the meeting
> officially ended. I asked for their business cards,
> Simmons gave me
> his,
> but Loew "Didn't have any." I gave them mine.
> Simmons and Loew got up
> to
> leave, but Simmons was cornered by several members
> who wanted to ask
> more
> questions. Loew quietly slipped out the door.
> Ayers and I answered a
> few
> more questions, then it was time to go.
>
> We went outside and those that were left wanted to
> see my mobile setup
> and
> hear the interference. Guess what? IT WAS GONE!!!
> THE SYSTEM HAD
> BEEN
> SHUT DOWN, either in the time before Simmons and
> Loew got to the meeting
> (maybe why they were late), or when Loew slipped out
> the door at the
> end.
> Everything was gone, completely. Interestingly,
> this explains why I got
> an
> email from a ham who went to Penn Yan last Saturday
> (4/17) and found
> nothing, yet another person (this one from Harris
> Corp) was there on the
> same day and heard everything just as I had reported
> it. I think this
> action speaks even louder than the interference
> about just what is going
> on
> here, and does not present the BPL providers in a
> positive light at all.
>
> I was able to convince several people to lodge
> formal complaints to the
> FCC
> about the interference they had experienced, and I
> believe they will.
>
> I'm sure there's more to come from this.
>
> Dave Hallidy K2DH"
>
>
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>
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