[R-390] The politics of BPL

Sun Jul 11 15:51:38 EDT 2004

Group,

        I have been copying the mail on this one for quite a while now and
times before...

Don't let this issue cloud your decision making when choosing your
Presidential candidate this fall....

Four yeas ago we hadn't even heard of BPL and four years from now it may be
gone....but there are many more issues that come with the choosing of a
Presidential candidate that could be more profound.

I'll not attempt to campaigned for either but say that BPL was no more the
brain child of the current administration than it was your local Utility
company.  Both of which have been sold this load of crap by highly paid
folks that just do their jobs well.  They both (Gov. and the Utilities)
believe they are making the right decision based on the information they
have been given.(and yes it's driven by economics....if you were driving a
huge investor owned corp. you would be too.)

Moving this country to a Democratic Leadership won't change a thing...the
same slick suits are going to be selling this junk to them as well...and
they will buy it for the same reasons...and it will only be easier for them
because it now has some level of momentum.

I don't like it...no more than you do!  But I believe we have to get behind
something more significant than it's disruption of our "Hobby".  Hobbies are
expendable in the eyes of Gov. and Big business.

I do believe you can't under estimate the power of a Grass Roots movement.
I think the power on this is in our Senators and Congressmen.  They pretty
much run things and oversee various agencies.  Each and every individual
should contact his representation...but do it in support of something
bigger...something more important than us loosing our ability to listen to
the "Carrier from Pitcairn Is."  That's not to say that you should not
mention it's impact to you personally but I don't think we can get there
from here. (R-390X Land)

What are the large Public Safety Lobby's saying about this..what's their
stand.   I was told by a friend this last week that he knows of a DEA
listening post near where he works that monitors the open waters and South &
Central American areas for Drug trafficking activities.  He's been in there
to do A/C maintenance work and seen the place...of course they cover all the
consoles before he is allowed to enter...but my guess is they are in the HF
spectrum.  How about FEMA.....and the Military...they use analog HF spectrum
for Non-Secure com.  This I would imaging would impact even some of their
Digital HF stuff.  Can you imagine what this trash sounds like at 30,000
feet?

I don't know who or how to get behind them.....but I believe that's what
it's going to take.

Sadly I don't think Amateur Radio has the clout anymore with the FCC it once
had because of the reputation it has developed....so that route is limited
to the commissions violations of it's own rules of allowing an unlicensed
service to interfere with a licensed one.  Maybe once enough evidence is in
place, a law suit against the FCC filed by the ARRL and other license
holders in the effected spectrum to protect the Licenses it has granted as
it agreed to do is the answer....

Anyway I have rambled around a bit I know but all this is to say we need a
better approach and not to condemn the Republicans or your Utility just yet!

I'll speak more to the Utility side once I know more and can speak more
intelligently than I am able to at this point.

My job in the real world is as an RF specialist for one of, if not the
largest, Electric Utilities in the nation.  I'm involved in the engineering
and maintenance of communications equipment installations that control
substations, transmission line and distribution switches etc...

I haven't heard of any interest in our utility getting into that business
nor making our lines available to others wanting to get into that business.
Utilities have to be careful about allowing Telecoms access to the
transmission lines for use as transport because the majority of the "Right
of Ways" that were negotiated for the lines were for the utilities internal
use.  (telecom and power transmission)  When they start carrying "For
Profit" traffic they have violated their "Right Away Agreements" with
property owners. Law suits entail and everything gets real expensive.  Many
of the REA's in the southeastern US get their generation from us through
ties to our transmission systems.  They usually don't own generation of
their own and locate their subs (relatively) closely to our transmission
lines so ultimately don't own that many miles of transmission lines.

My understanding is that the biggest piece of this is the use of the
transmission lines as their transport network...and I'm sure the
distribution side as their delivery method...but I don't know if BPL can
cross the distribution transformer or not....I know things like Power Line
Carrier which we have used for years for various things cannot!  They must
have to bypass the transformers with a gateway of some type..

Anyway...I'll be asking lots more questions in the near future in
engineering meetings and to executive management.  I'll let you know what I
find out.

Brings up a couple of thoughts though.  The "right of way" issue might be a
good leverage point.  Another thing we might do is look at the FCC license
database...it's on the internet now for all to see....and look at who the
licensed users in the 2 thru 30 MC band are.  A pattern might develop as to
who else is not going to be happy about this thing.

Just my thoughts...

Cecil Acuff
WB5VCE

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John KA1XC" <tetrode at comcast.net>
To: "R-390 reflector" <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] The politics of BPL

> > Hi
> > Well certainly there has been more vocal support for BPL from the party
> > in office.
>
> No doubt about it Bob, from Bush on down to his *Republican FCC
appointees*
> Powell Jr and Ms Abernathy BPL has become part of the party-line.
>
> You know I hate politics because people and parties become so polarized
and
> zero-tolerant of the other guy that it's hard to get things done. In my
view
> there is virtually no party that is all good or all bad, each has its
> strengths and deficiencies and personalities, and my Independent voter
> status allows me to vote my mind instead of my party.
>
> Each political party has it's own stereo-typed characteristic which for
the
> Republicans is
>
> i) favoring big business
> ii) deregulating or loosening regulations to support the above point
> iii) and then the environment suffers.
>
> What I want to point out is that all three of these criteria (which have
hit
> home to my hobby) apply to the present BPL situation:
> i) The war-cry is that BPL broadband is what the American economy needs
and
> it will create jobs and provide much business to the Utility and
> Communications companies involved.
> ii) The part 15 regulations protecting the radio services need to be
relaxed
> to accomplish the above goal.
> iii) The environment which is going to suffer this time is not the air
> quality, water quality, or remote Alaskan wilderness, it's the nation-wide
> RF ENVIRONMENT on which all point to point communication is based.
>
> To me this indicates the FCC has totally lost its direction with respect
to
> protecting the RF environment; I'm thinking the EPA should be brought in
to
> investigate.
>
> Anyway, come this November it should be no surprise which party I'll NOT
be
> voting for.
> 73,
> John
>
>
>
>
>
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