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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: Vermont General Assembly Okays Amateur Radio Antenna Bill |
NEWINGTON, CT, May 12, 2006--With an amendment requiring the FCC to study BPL interference now included in Section 502 of the House telecom bill, HR 5252, the ARRL is shifting its focus to the Senate. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will conduct hearings on its own version of telecom legislation, S 2686, later this month and will begin consideration of the bill in early June. Between now and then, the ARRL is urging members in the 22 states with Senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to write seeking support to include similar BPL study language in the Senate bill.
"If we can protect Section 502 when the bill comes to the House floor for consideration, and if we can get similar language introduced on the Senate side, we'll be in a good position when and if the two bills go to a Conference Committee," observes ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ.
The amendment to the House bill, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006, was proposed by Rep Mike Ross, WD5DVR (D-AR), and supported by Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX). The US House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 42-12 to send the COPE Act, including the amendment, to the full House for its consideration. The House is expected to vote on the measure soon.
The Ross amendment has received significant opposition from electric utilities. The United Telecom Council (UTC), a bulwark of BPL support and administrator of the Interference Resolution Web site, has referred to the amendment as a threat and is urging its members to contact their members of Congress regarding its inclusion.
This week the League began getting out the word via e-mail to members in states with Senators on Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "Now we must turn our attention to the Senate, where similar language is needed," the letter to members in targeted states says. It asks League members to urge their Senators on the committee to support language addressing the BPL interference issue when the Senate bill is marked up in committee on June 8.
The language the League wants to see in the Senate amendment to the telecom bill would call on the FCC to "conduct, and submit to the House Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, a study of the interference potential of broadband over power line systems leading to improved rules to prevent the deployment of systems having a potential to cause destructive interference to radio communication systems."
The ARRL plea includes a sample letter, which members are encouraged to personalize as much as possible. The League wants members to fax their letters to the number indicated in the e-mail to members plus a copy to ARRL's government relations firm Chwat & Company, ATTN: Eric Heis, KI4NFC, 625 Slaters Ln -- Suite 103, Alexandria, VA 22314. Fax 703-684-7594.
The sample letter points out the value of Amateur Radio's role in recent disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. "The reason we need your help is that the FCC continues to resist growing evidence that its rules are inadequate to protect radiocommunication systems, including those relied upon by First Responders, from radio spectrum pollution caused by BPL systems," the sample letter says. "The FCC needs to objectively and carefully review this evidence and adopt rules that will keep interference from BPL within reasonable bounds." The sample letter notes that not only has the FCC shown no inclination to do that, it's so far failed "to enforce its existing rules in specific, well documented instances of harmful interference."
"Remember that it is not BPL that we oppose, but BPL interference," Sumner emphasizes. "Some BPL systems are designed not to cause widespread interference, but many are not. The problem is that the FCC rules don't distinguish between the two. This is unfair to licensed radio services that must deal with the consequences of spectrum pollution." Sumner said it's also unfair that BPL system designers who did their homework on the interference issue "have to compete with those who didn't."
ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, says members' calls and letters to their lawmakers to support Ross's 2005 House Resolution 230 (H Res 230) were instrumental in securing inclusion of Ross's more-significant amendment to HR 5252. The non-binding H Res 230 calls on the FCC to "reconsider and revise rules" governing BPL based on "a comprehensive evaluation" of their interference potential.
Assuming the House and Senate approve their respective versions of the telecom legislation, a conference committee would convene to meld the differing bills into a single measure.
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