[OKDXA] BPL

[Dave Ratliff]

>From the LSDXA reflector    73-DaveW5ATV


Ham radios, new Internet access don't mix


Weather forecasters, radio operators say using power lines for
 broadband interferes with signals

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, April 5, 2004

The National Weather Service calls ham radio operators its eyes and ears 
-- volunteers with federally licensed radio transmitters in their 
vehicles who provide "ground truth" about severe weather that the 
forecasters can see only on their radar and computer screens.

So weather service meteorologists -- particularly those at the Austin 
and San Antonio forecast center in New Braunfels, who regularly deal 
with severe storms, floods and tornadoes -- worry about a new threat to 
ham radio operators.

"They tell us whether warnings need to be extended or allowed to 
expire," weather service meteorologist Larry Eblen said. "It'd be like 
losing an arm."

The threat is an experimental technology called broadband over power 
line, which would use electric power lines to transmit digital data. It 
would give electricity customers high-speed Internet access comparable 
with that offered by cable television and phone companies. But power 
line access would offer the additional convenience of being available at 
any wall plug.

But 'hams,' a word amateur radio operators call themselves, say that 
data-transmitting power lines, which are being tested in upstate New 
York and a few other places across the country, emit high-frequency 
radio waves that interfere with other signals.

"It's really an issue in the high-frequency bands," said John Suchyta, 
president of the Austin Amateur Radio Club. "It's not likely to 
interfere with local police or fire communications. But long-distance 
(radio) is high frequency, and the interference that broadband over 
power line will cause is more prevalent on high-frequency bands."

So far, there are no known plans in Central Texas or elsewhere in the 
state to introduce the experimental technology, although officials of 
city-owned Austin Energy say they have received verbal inquiries from 
some companies that are interested in pursuing it.

"We have yet to evolve a policy on this," said Austin Energy Vice 
President Bob Kahn, who handles the electric utility's legal services. 
"The regulatory environment is unclear, and there are a lot of issues 
we'd be concerned about. There are others looking at it. We're just kind 
of watching."

Ham operators nationally are lobbying the Federal Communications 
Commission against the technology, and officers of the Texas chapter of 
the Amateur Radio Relay League have lobbied the staff of the state 
Public Utilities Commission, according to their newsletter.

The hams argue that power lines essentially are unshielded antennae, and 
any radio frequency signal on one would be radiated in all directions, 
interfering with many nearby radio receivers.

"There is a good bit of information, including a telling audio of the 
interference it causes to mobile high-frequency radios, on the 
www.arrl.org Web site," Austin shortwave operator Stuart Rohre said.

Eblen would like to see the whole subject go away.

"We not only hold most of the nation's rainfall records," he said, "but 
we have more frequent flash floods than any other part of the country. I 
can't see how we could operate, especially in flood events, without the 
hams' mobile and reliable operation."