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 Previous: NTIA's BPL Position a Moving Target; Agency Edges Closer to FCC's Stance |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
 FCC Chairman Michael Powell |
NEWINGTON, CT, October 8, 2004--The FCC will hold an Open Commission Meeting which has BPL as agenda item #1 on Thursday, October 14th at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. The Commission will consider a Report and Order regarding changes to the rules applicable to Access Broadband over Power Line systems. Amateur radio operators and others interested in their decisions can get live Audio/Visual coverage of the proceedings via the internet by going to www.fcc.gov/realaudio.
More than 6100 comments have been filed on the topic since the FCC released its initial Notice of Inquiry in the proceeding, ET Docket 03-104, in April 2003 and a subsequent Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), ET Docket 04-37, in February of this year. The ARRL has taken its concerns regarding Amateur Radio and BPL directly to the Commission's members. The ARRL delegation asserted that the FCC is pushing the proceeding to a predetermined conclusion with little regard for technical issues.
"Because the FCC has been unwilling to release for public review the results of its own tests and observations of BPL systems, the ARRL has no confidence that the draft Report and Order will be based on sound engineering and believes the rush to adoption is unwarranted and premature," ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, said in a letter to Commissioner Adelstein. The letter reiterated the League's key points that, it said, "represent the minimum protection" that should be incorporated into the BPL Report and Order prior to Commission adoption.
"Without adequate safeguards, the deployment of BPL systems will result in the pollution and degradation of the unique natural resource of the high-frequency radio spectrum," Sumner said.
The League argued that a reduction in the radiated emission limit for BPL systems be included in the R&O. The ARRL wants the limit set 30 dB below current Part 15 requirements, which, it says, were established with narrowband point-source radiators in mind. "The record in this proceeding clearly establishes that BPL is not a point-source radiator," the ARRL's letter asserted.
The ARRL pointed out that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has concluded that at the current Part 15 limit, interference is "likely" to receivers in land vehicles 75 meters from BPL-connected power lines and to fixed stations 460 meters from such power lines. The only way to reduce these areas of potential interference is to reduce the radiated emission limit, the ARRL maintained. Mandatory "notching" of the amateur bands by 30 dB would reduce the probability of interference to amateur stations sufficiently that the remaining interference cases might be resolved on a case-by-case basis. "However," the League added, "such notching would not solve the problem for other radio services."
Amateurs with actual, real-world experience in several locations, including Cedar Rapids (Iowa), Briarcliff Manor (New York) and southern Wake County (North Carolina), have documented in filings with the FCC that the effectiveness of notching falls far short of the claims by BPL's proponents.
Amateurs Not the only ones with Major Concerns
In September, Marilyn Ward, Chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), wrote to the FCC that, "BPL should not be considered simply as a source of interference but as a potential danger to life and property."
Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC) presented a study of BPL issues for NPSTC which showed, "the real possibility of interference to Aeronautical air traffic control and operational communications from broadband over power line (BPL) systems operating in the Aeronautical Mobile(R) high frequencies.
The NPSTC letter to the FCC concluded, "we remain unconvinced that BPL can be deployed without causing harmful interference to mission critical public safety systems that directly impact safety of life and property throughout the United States."
Additional BPL-Related Measurement Concerns Raised
The ARRL also has asked Commission members to
consider including the NTIA's recommendations to standardize measurement
procedures and to require that Access BPL systems be certificated, not merely
verified. The League has further stressed the need for independent confirmation
of rules compliance before a BPL system is placed in operation.
| Previous: NTIA's BPL Position a Moving Target; Agency Edges Closer to FCC's Stance | Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
