[NCham] KN4AQ letter to President Bush on BPL

[Gary Pearce KN4AQ]

 From the ARRL Web site:

http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/cta/

On April 26, President Bush directly supported BPL as a means of bringing 
broadband Internet access to more of America.

The ARRL has issued a "call to arms" to get thousands of responses to the 
White House, Senators and Congress, asking that this support be withdrawn.

ARRL CEO K1ZZ says, "We need thousands of responses from all parts of the 
country, right away, if we are to make an impression."

Samples and instructions are available at the web link above.  It will take 
you about a half hour, max.


Here's mine:


President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500



Dear President Bush,


I appreciate the need to make high speed Internet available to all 
Americans, urban or rural.  But encouraging BPL - Broadband over Power 
Lines - is a problem.

BPL has a serious technical flaw.  Putting broadband data on power lines 
creates radio signals across the shortwave radio bands.  The power line 
itself acts as an antenna, and the signals can interfere with - jam - radio 
reception for people listening in the vicinity of the line.  When power 
lines everywhere are carrying BPL, the interference will also be everywhere.

The BPL operators don't want to create those signals, just as automobile 
manufacturers don't want their engines to create air pollution.  But 
there's a limit to how much either one can do about it.  In the case of 
BPL, there are good alternatives like "Wi-Max" microwave distribution, and 
unlike automobiles, we are not already dependent on BPL technology.

I am an Amateur Radio operator, licensed by the FCC since 1965.  There is a 
BPL trial system near my home in Wake County, North Carolina, operated by 
Progress Energy.  I've spent considerable time observing the effects.  The 
radio signals generated can be heard for more than a half mile, and can 
interfere with Amateur Radio stations I'm trying to listen to, as well as 
international shortwave broadcast stations, government and military 
stations, CB radio and just about every other shortwave radio user.

Many of these services, and Amateur Radio in particular, form the backbone 
of the nation's emergency communications infrastructure.  When a disaster 
disables the regular communications grid, shortwave radio bridges the gap 
and keeps vital information flowing, with volunteer Amateur Radio operators 
and their stations handling much of the job.  BPL may impact that directly 
by interfering with a station's ability to receive transmissions from 
disaster areas (the BPL in the disaster area itself will be 
inoperable).  It will also have a more insidious impact.  When routine 
shortwave radio is difficult or impossible to use because of BPL 
interference, the volunteers will hang it up.  The radio equipment will be 
abandoned.  The skills and techniques will be forgotten.

The FCC's "Part 15" rules say that systems like BPL are not allowed to 
cause this kind of interference.  If they do, the power companies must make 
adjustments or shut them down.  This is a very thin shield.  It depends on 
the utility's responsiveness to an unusual customer complaint, and the 
FCC's enthusiasm for interference enforcement, neither of which have good 
track records.  A virtual "Presidential mandate" for BPL could crumble what 
meager effects this rule might have.

I know that this is a "technical" problem that most people don't 
understand.  It's easy to see a potential benefit of BPL, and hard to see 
the harm to nearly invisible shortwave radio users.  But that's what will 
happen if BPL is applied to the nation's power grid.

I ask that you withdraw your support for BPL.



Sincerely,



Gary Pearce

__________________________________________________________________________
        Gary Pearce KN4AQ        editor, SERA Repeater Journal
        Cary, NC                 www.sera.org
        919-380-9944             kn4aq@sera.org
        kn4aq@arrl.net
         AOL/Yahoo Instant Messanger: KN4AQ
         (send e-mail to be put on my "buddy list")