[South Florida DX Association] Fw: interest for all hams

[NPAlex@aol.com]

Interesting comments - 
Norm

> From last weeks WSJ
> >Here is more on the subject of broadband over the power lines.
> >
> >
> >In This Power Play,
> >High-Wire Act Riles
> >Ham-Radio Fans
> >
> >New Use for Lines Sparks
> >Tension With Operators;
> >'Firestorm' in Penn Yan
> >By KEN BROWN
> >Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
> >March 23, 2004; Page A1
> >
> >Rick Lindquist drove down a street in a New York City suburb, ignoring the 
> >snow swirling around his car and twirling the dial on the ham radio mounted 
> 
> >to the side of his dashboard. The radio picked up an operator in Minnesota 
> >discussing antennas, the Salvation Army's daily emergency network check and 
> 
> >then the time, as broadcast from Colorado by the National Institute of 
> >Standards and Technology.
> >
> >As the car turned onto North State Road in the village of Briarcliff Manor 
> >in Westchester County, the voices faded, replaced with whirs and wahs -- 
> >what could have been sound effects from a 1950s science-fiction movie. The 
> >source, according to Mr. Lindquist, was right outside the window: the power 
> 
> >lines running alongside the road.
> >
> >Owned by Consolidated Edison, the lines transmit not just electricity but 
> >data, much like phone and cable-TV wires. The utility is testing a system 
> >for reading meters, probing for outages and potentially offering high-speed 
> 
> >Internet access to its customers via their electrical outlets. The 
> >interference from the power lines "ranges from very annoying to 
> >that's-all-I-can-hear," contends Mr. Lindquist, 58 years old, who often 
> >taps out Morse-code messages as he drives.
> >
> >In a clash between the dots and dashes of the telegraph and the bits and 
> >bytes of the Web, 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. Hams have flooded 
> >the Federal Communications Commission with about 2,500 letters and e-mails 
> >opposing power-line trials. In a letter to the FCC, the American Radio 
> >Relay League, a ham-radio group with 160,000 members, called power-line 
> >communications "a Pandora's box of unprecedented proportions."
> >
> >The league has raised more than $300,000 from nearly 5,600 donors since 
> >last summer, to pay for testing, lobbying and publicity to spread the word 
> >about the perceived threat. A half-dozen hams even confronted FCC Chairman 
> >Michael Powell, a big advocate of the power-line technology, when he 
> >visited a test site near Raleigh, N.C., earlier this month.
> >
> >The problem, most ham operators contend, is that power lines weren't built 
> >to carry anything other than electricity. Telephone and cable-TV lines are 
> >either shielded with a second set of wires or twisted together to prevent 
> >their signals from interfering with other transmissions. But signals sent 
> >over electrical wires tend to spill out, the hams contend.
> >
> >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."
> >
> >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. They chatted with people in far-flung places at a time when 
> >long-distance calling was still a luxury. They spread word of disasters 
> >that otherwise might have taken days to reach the public. 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.
> >
> >To become a fully licensed ham operator, people still need to learn Morse 
> >code, though that requirement likely will be dropped soon after more than a 
> 
> >decade of debate. Aging hams, who built crystal radio sets as kids or were 
> >radio operators during World War II, are dying. Fewer youngsters are 
> >replacing them. Armed with powerful computers, today's young tinkerers grow 
> 
> >up to be tech geeks, playing videogames and writing software.
> >
> >The American Radio Relay League has seen its membership shrink to today's 
> >160,000 from a peak of 175,000 in 1995, and the average member is in his 
> >mid-50s. The group estimates that there are about 250,000 active ham-radio 
> >enthusiasts.
> >
> >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. Other slices of the spectrum are reserved for AM and FM radio, 
> >broadcast television, cellphones, and police and fire departments, among 
> >other uses.
> >
> >Hams take great pride in radioing around the world. One favorite game: 
> >trying to contact someone in each of the 3,000-plus counties in the U.S. 
> >Mr. Lindquist is so enthusiastic about ham radio that he vacations in spots 
> 
> >such as Whitehorse, the capital of Canada's Yukon Territory, so other hams 
> >can claim they made contact with that city.
> >
> >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."
> >
> >Companies such as Con Ed and Progress note that current FCC regulations 
> >call for systems to be shut down if they interfere with hams. The radio 
> >operators agree the rules are clear, but they fear they will be rescinded 
> >or not enforced.
> >
> >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. But the American Radio Relay League says it did mention this 
> >system in its letters to the FCC, and it has been complaining about it on 
> >its Web site.
> >
> >The hams have been quick to act wherever systems are being rolled out. Just 
> 
> >days after Penn Yan, a town of 5,200 that sits amid New York's Finger 
> >Lakes, approved a plan to test power-line Internet access, "the firestorm 
> >started with the ham-radio operators -- letters, e-mails, telephone calls 
> >saying, 'You can't do this,' " recalls Mayor Doug Marchionda Jr.
> >
> >Hoping to keep everyone happy, he approached David Simmons, a local ham and 
> 
> >owner of an electronics store that sells radio gear. They surveyed the town 
> 
> >before the trial began to get base readings of interference. They even 
> >pinpointed a spot that had bothered police and firefighters for years, 
> >tracing it to refrigerators at a local supermarket.
> >
> >With the refrigerators fixed and the power-line system in place over nine 
> >blocks of Penn Yan, Mr. Simmons is satisfied that there is no interference 
> >and now favors the new technology. "This thing has caught quite a buzz," he 
> 
> >says. "It's just so much negativity out there."
> >
> >Tom Gius, a ham-radio operator in Alpine, Texas, sees the power lines as a 
> >threat to the public services that hams provide. When hailstorms sweep 
> >through each spring, Mr. Gius heads to the local radio station, while other 
> 
> >hams fan out to the north, south, east and west. They communicate by radio, 
> 
> >and Mr. Gius passes information to the radio station. "We won't be able to 
> >understand each other, it'll be so noisy," frets Mr. Gius, a 60-year-old 
> >retired broadcaster.
> >
> >Write to Ken Brown at ken.brown@wsj.comted 3/27/04 8:09:17 AM Eastern 
Standard Time, Wklinn@hotmail.com writes:
> 
> 



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