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Organizations'
Comments Augment Alarm over BPL
 Broadband over Power Line (BPL) systems would
use low and medium-voltage power lines like these to deliver broadband Internet
service to homes and businesses. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 30, 2003--Two
organizations have filed comments with the FCC that augment previously
expressed worries about potential interference from and to Broadband over Power
Line (BPL) systems. Picking up the "grave
concerns" the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expressed over BPL December 4, the nonprofit
Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response Association (DERA) is calling on the FCC to require
impartial BPL field testing as well as additional public comment and full and
open public hearings.
"DERA concludes that serious interference to
and disruption of critical emergency communications systems in several licensed
services throughout North America would almost certainly result from BPL
implementation as currently proposed," DERA's comments said. Endorsing FEMA's
earlier remarks, DERA said proposed BPL systems don't just pose a risk of
interference, they've already been shown to "actually cause harmful
interference to licensed radio services."
The Amateur Radio Research and Development
Corporation (AMRAD) filed additional test
data with the FCC to support its
preliminary comments suggesting that BPL systems are susceptible to
interference from even modest Amateur Radio HF signals. AMRAD said its data
demonstrate that amateur operation in the test neighborhood could cause many
homes to lose their Internet service. "At least an area out to a radius of 0.51
miles from the transmitting station could have their Internet connection
interrupted," AMRAD said. "Closer-in homes would almost certainly have their
Internet service interrupted."
AMRAD conducted an RF susceptibility
experiment at the Potomac BPL test site in early November. The site is part of
a Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) system test that uses a mid-1960s
vintage home with unshielded electrical wiring. The test neighborhood has
overhead power lines.
A Virginia community prepares to go forward
with plans to deploy a city-owned BPL network, while a California city has
decided against BPL for its own municipal broadband system. [Full Story] |
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AMRAD found that at a distance of just over
one-half mile, data transfer ceased in the face of a 100-W signal on 3980 kHz
from a mobile transmitter. Adjacent to the test property, AMRAD said data
transfer ceased in all but one instance at a transmitter power of just 4 W in
the BPL operating band of from 4 to 21 MHz.
The ARRL hopes to complete an independent BPL
engineering study by early 2004. Its will explore how BPL might affect HF and
low-VHF amateur operation as well as how Amateur Radio operation could affect
BPL systems.
Additional information about BPL and Amateur Radio is on the ARRL Web site. To support the League's efforts in this area,
visit the ARRL's secure BPL Web site.
Page last modified: 11:11 AM, 30 Dec 2003 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2003, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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