Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

Broadband over Power Line. This topic has garnered much attention in the amateur radio community, and this past week was the subject of a less than favorable perspective on the ARRL's ham radio, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

The ARRL has been fighting BPL because most systems have transmitted data signals as modulated HF and low VHF radio signals between about 2.5 and 80 Mhz, and have been shown to cause radio interference. The ARRL's approach to the fight, however, is totally wrong. And resulted in this week's WSJ story that presented the BPL issues as "a few old hams" versus millions of Internet users.

A much more effective argument would be to ignore ham radio all together. Instead, arguments should focus strictly on the multiple benefits delivered by the radio spectrum to the general public. Note that BPL will interfere with CB radio, with FEMA disaster communications, with the U.S. military, and air traffic control, Red Cross communications, and even potentially TV channels 2 through 6. Trials performed in other countries were ended due to widespread radio communications interference. The ARRL, on the other hand, has focused on the amateur radio argument - primarily - which provides BPL proponents with a tidy argument that is essentially, "Who cares about ham radio?" The answer is, not all that many people.

Many in the BPL industry claim they will "notch out" selected frequencies to avoid radio interference "where necessary". This claim is rather bogus in that they, potentially, would have to notch out most of the radio spectrum they intend to use.

Alternative BPL systems bypass the HF radio spectrum altogether and modulate data directly in the Part 15 radio spectrum, such as 2.4 to 2.4835 Ghz or the 5 Ghz band. These systems are technically possible and would eliminate the problems created by attempting to use the power lines as leaking HF antennas. Some BPL technologies do, in fact, use the Part 15 radio spectrum. Many others do not. Hopefully, sanity will eventually prevail and the HF radio spectrum will not be obliterated by greedy CEOs who seek to line their own pockets. In fact, there are some who argue that the proposed BPL systems are so unworkable that Wall Street investors will avoid the field entirely. Lacking capital, the systems may go no where. [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology]

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