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![Previous (earlier) Story](/images/sty-down.gif "Riley Reiterates Recommendation to "Lighten Up" on Ham Bands"){kind=small} Previous: Riley Reiterates Recommendation to "Lighten Up" on Ham Bands |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jun 1, 2007 -- The ARRL has again demanded that the FCC shut down Ambient Corporation's broadband over power line (BPL) pilot project in Briarcliff Manor, New York. On May 21 the FCC called on the BPL equipment maker and system operator to demonstrate it's complying with all terms of the Part 5 Experimental license authorizing the system, or face possible enforcement action. In a May 31 letter to FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Kathryn S. Berthot, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, contended that it's "long past time that the Commission enforce its own rules," and again objected to the Commission's "inexplicable inaction" in the face of evidence the system is noncompliant. Imlay pointed out that the FCC's May 21 letter made no mention of Condition #1 of Ambient's Part 5 Experimental license.
"That condition requires that if any interference occurs, the holder of the authorization will be subject to immediate shutdown," Imlay wrote. "Interference has repeatedly occurred, and it has been witnessed and verified by a member of the Commission's Enforcement Bureau staff. Yet no action has been taken whatsoever to terminate this experimental authorization over a period of more than two and one-half years. This is inexcusable."
Ambient operates the Briarcliff Manor BPL pilot program under Experimental license WD2XEQ. ARRL testing as recent as late May indicated the system is operating outside of the parameters of its FCC authorization.
Too Little, Too Late
The League called the FCC's most recent push to get the company to comply with the terms of its Experimental license "too little, too late and an abdication of the Commission's responsibility to protect its licensees from interference from unlicensed RF devices."
"The Commission's obsessive compulsion to avoid any bad news about BPL has clearly driven its multi-year inaction," the League continued. "Had this been any other experimental authorization dealing with any technology other than BPL, the experimental authorization would have been terminated long ago."
The League's complaints regarding interference to Amateur Radio communication from the Briarcliff Manor system date back to October 2003 and included supportive technical reports and test results.
As it stands, the League maintained, the FCC should have shut down Ambient's BPL system a long time ago. The ARRL further objected to Ambient's "repeated misrepresentations in its six-month reports claiming that its Briarcliff Manor BPL system meets FCC emission limits."
Third Time Not the Charm
New measurements done May 24 by ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, conclusively establish that the Ambient BPL system, in Hare's words, "continues to operate well above the Part 15 emission limits that are stipulated as a condition of its Experimental license." Hare said his latest excursion marked the third time his emissions testing in Briarcliff Manor showed the system to be operating significantly above Part 15 emissions limits.
"The spectral masks in this system intended to protect some radio services from interference work poorly enough in this generation-1 equipment, but when the system is operated at excessive levels, strong interference is an inevitable outcome," he commented. "By operating this system above the Part 15 emissions limits, Ambient is making it impossible for any electric utility to use results from this experiment to reach any conclusions about the technical and commercial viability of BPL."
Under the Radar
The ARRL further argued that the Ambient BPL system should not be permitted to continue operating under the radar with an Experimental license instead of under the FCC's Part 15 BPL rules, adopted in 2004. The Briarcliff Manor system does not even appear in the FCC's BPL database, the League noted.
"Causing Ambient to operate in accordance with the BPL rules rather than allowing it to hide behind its experimental authorization would at least be consistent with the Commission's regulatory plan for BPL, however inadequate that plan is in terms of interference avoidance," Imlay's letter concluded.
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