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 Previous: CNCS Emergency Communication Training Grant News |  Next: ARRL Asks FCC Chairman to Recuse Himself from BPL Vote |
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 11, 2004--As the FCC is poised to act this week on a BPL Report and Order, the ARRL has asked the Commission to shut down a BPL field trial system in Briarcliff Manor, New York, that has been the subject of past interference complaints. The ARRL says the system, being operated by Ambient Corporation under an FCC Part 5 Experimental license (WD2XEQ), continues to cause "harmful interference" to Amateur Radio stations, and the FCC must require it to cease operation immediately.
 The Briarcliff Manor BPL field trial system incorporates this pole-mounted camera for local authorities to monitor traffic at an intersection near Route 9A. [Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, Photo] |
"The operator of the system has attempted what it referred to as 'adjustments' in this system in order to reduce the severe interference potential to licensed radio services such as the Amateur Service," said ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD. "These 'adjustments' have come to be inaccurately referred to as 'notching' of certain bands, and as a solution to interference to Amateur Service stations, they are incomplete and inadequate."
The ARRL's October 8 letter of complaint was sent to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief David Solomon, Deputy Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Bruce Franca and Experimental Licensing Division Chief James Burtle. A copy went to Yehuda Cern of Ambient, which is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts. The complaint asserts that the Briarcliff Manor system currently is causing interference and fails to comply with either applicable FCC Part 15 regulations or with the terms of its FCC experimental authorization.
ARRL member Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, a resident of the community, has documented interference, complaints and related information on his "BPL in Briarcliff Manor" Web site.
ARRL said the BPL facility at Briarcliff Manor should not be permitted to resume operation until it can demonstrate "full compliance" with FCC rules regarding radiated emissions as well as with the non-interference requirement of §15.5 and the system's experimental authorization.
 An Ambient BPL power-line connection in Briarcliff Manor. The yellow object is a tap off the medium-voltage primary. The gray cabinet holds the electronics. [Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, Photo] |
Accompanying the League's complaint were technical exhibits substantiating the degree of interference the League alleges. One exhibit shows the results of frequency-shifting adjustments Ambient made to the system in the wake of "multiple interference complaints from licensed radio amateurs." The complaint maintains that the adjustments failed to reduce interference on "a substantial portion" of the HF amateur allocations.
"Notching has not been done on all parts of the system," the ARRL noted. Despite Ambient's efforts to resolve instances of harmful interference, the ARRL said the system continues to cause interference, in some instances radiating at levels that fail to comply with FCC Part 15 radiated emission limits. The ARRL study says Ambient has been trying for more than a year to mitigate interference at the Westchester County site by using "notching" techniques, "but to no avail."
The ARRL said measurements taken at 14.3 MHz along Chappaqua Road in Briarcliff Manor "revealed 30 to 40 dB of degradation to Amateur Radio operations along a stretch of road over a kilometer in length." Another sweep showed that BPL signals at Chappaqua Road and North State Road occupy the entire 15-meter band and are still strong more than a quarter mile from the BPL injector.
"The levels of interfering BPL signals are sufficient to obscure virtually all Amateur Radio received signals and preclude Amateur Radio communications in the areas and on the bands identified in the report," the ARRL concluded.
Another exhibit provides "baseline" measurements at a non-BPL location for comparison. ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, took the measurements and tests October 3 and compiled the results which, the ARRL complaint says, "are representative of current conditions at the test site." Hare said in a report summary that the system "continues to intentionally use spectrum allocated to the Amateur Radio Service at full-strength Part 15 levels, with no attempt made to protect amateur spectrum locally in those areas."
The ARRL called on the FCC to not only shut down the Briarcliff Manor BPL system immediately but asked the Commission to impose "appropriate monetary forfeitures" against Ambient.
The Briarcliff Manor BPL system, which is operated by the local electric utility Consolidated Edison, was the focus of a March 2004 front-page Wall Street Journal article, "In This Power Play, High-Wire Act Riles Ham-Radio Fans," by technology writer Ken Brown. ARRL staff members accompanied Brown to the BPL site so he could hear the interference firsthand.
Ambient manufactures the BPL equipment, which uses orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing and generates multiple carriers in groups of three, spaced approximately 1.1 kHz apart. The system occupies multiple segments of the HF and low-VHF spectrum.
The full FCC will consider a draft Report and Order in ET Docket 04-37 when it meets in open session Thursday, October 14.
For more information on BPL, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur
Radio" page on the ARRL Web site.
| Previous: CNCS Emergency Communication Training Grant News | Next: ARRL Asks FCC Chairman to Recuse Himself from BPL Vote |
