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 Previous: What's Really Happening in Penn Yan? |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 1, 2004--ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, has written Penn Yan, New York, Mayor Doug Marchionda Jr to call his attention to documented radio interference from the town's small BPL field trial. He accompanied his April 1 e-mail with a report from ARRL member Dave Hallidy, K2DH, who recently visited Penn Yan after a recent Wall Street Journal article suggested that BPL interference issues in Penn Yan had been resolved.
"I understand that your village is considering entering into a long-term agreement with a firm to offer BPL service," Sumner wrote Marchionda. "Please be aware that a large-scale deployment of BPL is bound to cause harmful interference to radio communications across a wide area."
According to news accounts, the Western New York community of about 5200 residents will consider approval of a 10-year agreement with Data Ventures (DVI) to offer BPL service in Penn Yan. The village reportedly would get 10 percent of the generated revenue.
In his March 23 article "In This Power Play, High-Wire Act Riles Ham-Radio Fans," Wall Street Journal reporter Ken Brown described a "firestorm" of protest from amateurs when Penn Yan approved the BPL test plan.
Hallidy said he found during his weekend visit that the BPL noise "appears to start in earnest around the bottom of the 17 meter band (18 MHz) and continues upwards." He said that once he tuned above 18 MHz, there were no frequencies where the BPL noise was not observed. "The signals were pretty uniform from 18 to 30 MHz," he said.
Sumner told Marchionda that DVI cannot guarantee reliable service delivery via BPL because FCC Part 15 rules stipulate that its operation "is subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused and that interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station." Sumner noted that the FCC has proposed new rules that would impose additional requirements on BPL systems to better address interference problems that arise.
Referring to Hallidy's report, posted March 27 via the Internet and made available to ARRL, Sumner said, "what it boils down to is that as of last Saturday the Penn Yan BPL system was causing severe interference on a broad range of radio frequencies, as much as 1.5 miles from the source." Such interference violates FCC rules--specifically §15.5(b)--and a complaint has been filed with the FCC, Sumner noted.
Sumner offered to demonstrate to Marchionda the extent of the BPL interference in Penn Yan before the community proceeds any further with its BPL plans and "to explain why a full-scale deployment is not possible within the FCC rules."
"If you will invite us to do so and will require that the BPL system operator extend at least minimal cooperation in the demonstration, you will then have a factual basis for your decision," Sumner concluded.
For more information on BPL, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio" page on the ARRL Web site.
| Previous: What's Really Happening in Penn Yan? | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
