[SMCARA] Broadband over Power lines (BPL) in Virginia

[JD Delancy]

The BPL threat is real, see W1RFI's story below..

--__--__--


Subject: RE: BPL in VA
From: Hare,Ed, W1RFI (w1rfi@arrl.org)
Date: Wed Aug 06 2003 - 12:29:23 EDT

ARRL just posted a news story about the tests the League made in four of the 
trial areas.  This included the City of Manassas visit, although this was my 
first visit to that area, so that is the shortest of the clips.  The area 
where the BPL trial was occuring in Manassas appears to be all underground 
wiring and we didn't find any nearby overhead wiring where I could identify 
the couplers used to get the signals onto the distribution lines. 
Nonetheless, even with underground wiring, the BPL signals were easily found 
and heard.

Some parts of Manassas have overhead wiring, and if BPL is deployed in those 
areas at signal levels as defined in the present FCC rules, there is every 
reason to believe that the resultant signal levels will be as found in the 
rest of my test results to all nearby receivers tuned to frequencies  the BPL 
system is using.  To obtain bandwidth of several MB/s, the BPL system must use 
many MHz of spectrum, so no matter where these systems operate, it is a 
question of whose service will be affected, from amateur to shortwave 
broadcast to the numerous other uses of HF.

The following link to the story contains a link to the video/audio recordings 
ARRL made to document the testing.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/08/08/2/?nc=1

73,
Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab
225 Main St
Newington, CT 06111
Tel: 860-594-0318
Internet: w1rfi@arrl.org
Web: http://www.arrl.org/tis