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ARRL Seeks Texas BPL Pilot
Project Shutdown, Fines
NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 17, 2005--The
ARRL has requested that the FCC immediately shut down an Irving,
Texas, BPL pilot project and fine its operator for causing extensive
harmful interference to Amateur Radio communications. The League’s
March 15 filing
to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, the FCC Office of Engineering
and Technology and the system’s operator comes in the wake
of--and supports--a complaint from ARRL member Jory McIntosh, KJ5RM,
of Hastlet, Texas. McIntosh regularly commutes through the BPL test
zone, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The FCC has yet to
respond to a formal
complaint he filed last fall.
“The results of tests
conducted by ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare are that this facility,
which has been the subject of an unresolved interference complaint
dating back to November, 2004, is still regularly causing harmful
interference to Amateur Radio stations and must be required to cease
operation immediately,” said the League’s complaint,
signed by ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD. Hare visited the
Texas site last October.
The ARRL said the levels of
interfering BPL signals Hare measured and documented “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.”
McIntosh personally documented
some two dozen instances of harmful interference from the BPL test
stand on 11 days between July and October 2004, the ARRL complaint
noted. He logged serious interference on 40, 20, 17, 15, 10 and 6
meters.
“My communications are not
affected until I get within one mile of the BPL system location at
which time my radio receiver is quickly overloaded with high levels
of interference that blocks out all but the very strongest of signals
on the amateur bands listed above,” McIntosh has indicated.
“The interference is so bad that even with full filtering and
digital signal processing engaged, I am unable to continue my
communications until I am one mile away from the system.”
This week’s ARRL filing,
which included a summary of Hare’s measurements, recounted
McIntosh’s complaints last summer to utility TXU and BPL
equipment provider Amperion. TXU and Amperion representatives
accompanied McIntosh on interference demonstrations and made some
unspecified adjustments. But, the League notes in its complaint,
“Nothing has changed since the complaint was first lodged.”
As of March 9, 2005, the ARRL said, the system was producing the same
amounts of interference within and outside the amateur bands that
McIntosh already had reported.
“ARRL therefore requests
that the BPL facility at Irving, Texas, be instructed to shut down
immediately, and that it not resume operation unless the facility is
shown to be in full compliance with Commission rules regarding
radiated emissions and with the non-interference requirement of
Section 15.5 of the Commission’s rules,” the League’s
complaint said. The ARRL also called on the FCC to impose monetary
forfeitures on Amperion.
Test results attached to the
complaint “are sufficient to demonstrate that this BPL test
site should be shut down immediately,” the League said. The
ARRL expressed doubt, however, that the system could be demonstrated
to operate without causing harmful interference.
The League’s test report
noted that McIntosh observed extremely strong interference on amateur
spectrum “almost as soon as the system was installed.”
Initial adjustments by the utility failed to make much change.
McIntosh filed his formal written complaint with the FCC last
November 15.
The ARRL’s test report
points out that the interference is not confined to Amateur Radio
spectrum. “In addition to moderate-to-strong interference
observed in the Amateur Radio Service bands, strong interference is
seen on spectrum allocated to international shortwave broadcast; US
government time and frequency signals (WWV); Citizens Band; low-VHF
public service and business spectrum and various aeronautical,
commercial and government spectrum,” the report recounted.
“Many of the bands that the new FCC regulations on BPL will
require be notched are not protected at this time.”
The League predicted that if the
Irving system were deployed across a wider geographical area in its
present form, “it is certain that harmful interference to
various spectrum users will occur, and additional interference
complaints are inevitable.” The complaint reiterated that FCC
Part 15 regulations require unlicensed emitters not cause any harmful
interference, and the Irving BPL system was not in compliance.
Page last modified: 11:31 AM, 17 Mar 2005 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2005, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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