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As an outsider, it seems to me that there's a connection between the lack of popularity of ham radio and the severe restrictions placed on what can be done with it. For instance: sure, I can check my email over ham radio, but I'm not allowed to use encryption.

I've been following the work of the ARRL High Speed MultiMedia (HSMM) WorkGroup and they found a nice hole in the law. You can actually use encryption as long as you publish the key. If someone (the FCC) wants to listen to your broadcast, they only need to get a copy of the publicly available key. So what the workgroup proposes is to publish your WEP/IPSec key on an obscure web page and not tell anyone but your friends about it. If the FCC comes knocking on your door, give them the URL.

Hams a Bright Spot During Power Blackout has some info on Ham activity during the 2003 blackout.

The AARL has a lot of information on Field Day events, but much of it is difficult to find. For those of us in NYC Metro, the relevant information is: here.

• Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, rock musician
  
• Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, CBS News
  
• Joe Rudi, NK7U, major league baseball player
  
• Hugh Downs, KE6MCM, 20/20 Host
  
• Alvino Rey, W6UK, bandleader
  
• Cardinal Roger Mahony, W6QYI
  
• Ronnie Milsap, WB4KCG, country musician
  

• Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, rock musician
  
• Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, CBS News
  
• Joe Rudi, NK7U, major league baseball player
  
• Hugh Downs, KE6MCM, 20/20 Host
  
• Alvino Rey, W6UK, bandleader
  
• Cardinal Roger Mahony, W6QYI
  
• Ronnie Milsap, WB4KCG, country musician
  

I'm sure that there must be something close to his design on the ARRL site. After mulling it over coffee, I thought of the endless "hide your loaded helix antenna as a flagpole!" QST articles over the years. (Yeah, most flagpoles have coax cable running to the house. No one will suspect a thing!) D'oh, most of the articles are members only.

Although the articles are a bit thin on specs my gut instinct tells me it will be similar or an improvement the EH antenna. Link to definition (pdf) of EH antenna Link to (pdf) how to build an EH antenna.

I hope that despite of the patents the design will be made available for amateurs to use and experiment with.

These kind of innovations just show that Amateur Radio is still alive and can contribute in the advancement of radio.

Amateur Radio also still works for emergencies.

73 de Sjaak, W4RIS ex-PA3GVR

The FCC does more than just work as a frequency registrar

The Civil Aeronautics Board was abolished. Look what the resultant deregulation did to the airlines. How many have gone bankrupt since 1980? And of course, we're all seeing what wonderful customer service and convenient schedules and routes the deregulated airlines are providing.

We tried trusting the DMA to meet with the Internet community to define what spam is, and work with said community to promote anti-spam legislation with real teeth in it (unlike the YOU-CAN-SPAM act). The DMA paid lip service to the concerns expressed at the meeting, and then later betrayed everyone except their own members and interests by endorsing spam as "commercial free speech."

They continued on to promote the idea that the industry could regulate itself. Look where E-mail is today with the DMA's much-hyped idea of "self-regulation" of E-mail "marketing."

Even the Amateur Radio Service, supposedly self-regulating, is having its share of problems.

Do we really, REALLY want to trust the broadcasters and mass media to regulate themselves?

I don't think so. The biggest problem with the FCC right now is that its chief commissioner, Michael Powell, is a Bush crony who has no more of a grip on common sense and technical realities than the Shrub himself. Get rid of Powell, and replace the commissioners that are part of his little circle, and I would wager that things would start improving practically overnight.

Powell has pushed an agenda that is allowing a lot of concentration of media power.

As well as a blatent give-away of large amounts of already registered frequency to the power industry through BPL (broadband over power lines) authorization. As a telecom CEO, I can tell you Powell has his head stuck way up the power industry's interface on this one. He simply will not listen to any perspective. Someone's paid a handsome amount for this attention.

As a registered (and voting) republican, I'm shocked at how Powell has totally given away the shop on BPL. (I work with the power industry and owe my business's existance to them as well - but a terrible idea is still that). Of course, state congress critters are too overwhelmed by the technical natures of BPL and respond with a "well, I'm sure we'll all work our disagreements out after Mr. Powell pays back...er... gives the electrical utilities their gift..er...permission."

BPL will wreck frequencies. It's science, not lobbying. It's like putting a high density hog farm on every block and pretending any noticed smell can "be managed." Why engineer something all the engineers know will be a nightmare?

Why trash the frequencies and permit major disruption across the board for any reason other than quid pro quo for Powell to the power industry?

ARRL President Jim Haynie was a guest on the syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM for an hour and a half March 20, talking about BPL issues. Art Bell, W6OBB, hosted the show and ARRL Life Member Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of the band The Eagles, joined Haynie on the air to explain BPL and its potential problems. Haynie said the show went out to millions of listeners on 465 affiliates of the syndicated program.

Now let's see how good your *EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS*, you ham rig[s], your Analog Brodcast TV, and many other goodies work.

You won't be able to sell you rig on eBay because it will be worthless.

Oh and hey you CB er's Yours will all be worthless too!

Here's a PDF file by the ARRL about it

(Full Article)Stop the assault on ham radio!

Also there's the potential that "they" (I guess the public utilities) can use BPL to snoop on you also, All this was discussed By Joe Walsh and Art.

And the rest of you?
The "short waves" - the only part of the radio spectrum that supports long-distance, intercontinental radio communication. The short waves are used for international broadcasting, aeronautical, maritime, disaster relief, and other services including the military.

The "low-band VHF" frequency range that is heavily used by volunteer fire departments, police, and other first responders.

Depending on their distance from a BPL system, some public safety and federal government radio systems could receive harmful interference.

Can you honestly tell me the FCC has a firm grasp on Frequency and Power? No. Not the physics, but they DO HAVE A FIRM GRASP EH?!

ARRL President Jim Haynie was a guest on the syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM for an hour and a half March 20, talking about BPL issues. Art Bell, W6OBB, hosted the show and ARRL Life Member Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of the band The Eagles, joined Haynie on the air to explain BPL and its potential problems. Haynie said the show went out to millions of listeners on 465 affiliates of the syndicated program.

Now let's see how good your *EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS*, you ham rig[s], your Analog Brodcast TV, and many other goodies work.

You won't be able to sell you rig on eBay because it will be worthless.

Oh and hey you CB er's Yours will all be worthless too!

Here's a PDF file by the ARRL about it

(Full Article)Stop the assault on ham radio!

Also there's the potential that "they" (I guess the public utilities) can use BPL to snoop on you also, All this was discussed By Joe Walsh and Art.

And the rest of you?
The "short waves" - the only part of the radio spectrum that supports long-distance, intercontinental radio communication. The short waves are used for international broadcasting, aeronautical, maritime, disaster relief, and other services including the military.

The "low-band VHF" frequency range that is heavily used by volunteer fire departments, police, and other first responders.

Depending on their distance from a BPL system, some public safety and federal government radio systems could receive harmful interference.

Can you honestly tell me the FCC has a firm grasp on Frequency and Power? No. Not the physics, but they DO HAVE A FIRM GRASP EH?!

ARRL President Jim Haynie was a guest on the syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM for an hour and a half March 20, talking about BPL issues. Art Bell, W6OBB, hosted the show and ARRL Life Member Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of the band The Eagles, joined Haynie on the air to explain BPL and its potential problems. Haynie said the show went out to millions of listeners on 465 affiliates of the syndicated program.

Now let's see how good your *EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS*, you ham rig[s], your Analog Brodcast TV, and many other goodies work.

You won't be able to sell you rig on eBay because it will be worthless.

Oh and hey you CB er's Yours will all be worthless too!

Here's a PDF file by the ARRL about it

(Full Article)Stop the assault on ham radio!

Also there's the potential that "they" (I guess the public utilities) can use BPL to snoop on you also, All this was discussed By Joe Walsh and Art.

And the rest of you?
The "short waves" - the only part of the radio spectrum that supports long-distance, intercontinental radio communication. The short waves are used for international broadcasting, aeronautical, maritime, disaster relief, and other services including the military.

The "low-band VHF" frequency range that is heavily used by volunteer fire departments, police, and other first responders.

Depending on their distance from a BPL system, some public safety and federal government radio systems could receive harmful interference.

Can you honestly tell me the FCC has a firm grasp on Frequency and Power? No. Not the physics, but they DO HAVE A FIRM GRASP EH?!

ARRL President Jim Haynie was a guest on the syndicated radio program Coast to Coast AM for an hour and a half March 20, talking about BPL issues. Art Bell, W6OBB, hosted the show and ARRL Life Member Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, of the band The Eagles, joined Haynie on the air to explain BPL and its potential problems. Haynie said the show went out to millions of listeners on 465 affiliates of the syndicated program.

Now let's see how good your *EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS*, you ham rig[s], your Analog Brodcast TV, and many other goodies work.

You won't be able to sell you rig on eBay because it will be worthless.

Oh and hey you CB er's Yours will all be worthless too!

Here's a PDF file by the ARRL about it

(Full Article)Stop the assault on ham radio!

Also there's the potential that "they" (I guess the public utilities) can use BPL to snoop on you also, All this was discussed By Joe Walsh and Art.

And the rest of you?
The "short waves" - the only part of the radio spectrum that supports long-distance, intercontinental radio communication. The short waves are used for international broadcasting, aeronautical, maritime, disaster relief, and other services including the military.

The "low-band VHF" frequency range that is heavily used by volunteer fire departments, police, and other first responders.

Depending on their distance from a BPL system, some public safety and federal government radio systems could receive harmful interference.

Can you honestly tell me the FCC has a firm grasp on Frequency and Power? No. Not the physics, but they DO HAVE A FIRM GRASP EH?!

Every time theres an amateur radio story posted to /., either about morse code or BPL, all these haters show up and start saying ham radio is dead and that its a waste to give all these airwaves to these "hams".

Where are the haters in this thread? Oh OHHH its because we launched a ROCKET INTO SPACE. Has your hobby done that? HMM!? What about dozens of satellites, space station experiments and space shuttle experiments? What about being a vital part of our nation's emergency communications network?

I didn't think so. To all the rest, thank you for the resepect. I'm not trying to say ham radio is the best hobby, I'm just saying the haters need to recognize. :P

Please be aware that you need at least a General class license plus 5wpm in order to transmit to alternate universes. You really don't want the Parallel Comminications Commision on your ass.

Yup. There is currently an ARRL working group putting together stuff on a new ham radio mode: HSMM. That is, High Speed Multimedia. Takes advantage of hams being 2.4GHz primary users over all the Part 15 WiFi stuff. It's based on 802.11b and uses regular stuff like VOIP, etc. It's all still a work in progress, as far as I know, but I'm excited. 50-80 mile WiFi links are spiffy.

If you've ever looked to buy any 2.4GHz amps, you might have noticed that the higher-powered ones are only available for export, to the military, or to licensed radio amateurs. That's right---ham radio operators. :) Because we can go up to 100W in that band (with some restrictions, of course), unlike the wimpy 40mW of your Linksys wireless card.

So yeah, ham radio is definitely still out there. (I'm a ham, and I'm in college. Imagine that!)

I reckon that's the closest these three amigo's are gonna get to space travel: www.remote.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/05/12/2/Rock etBoys04-1-lrg.jpg

Imagine the rocket needed to take these three guys up there and back.

First of all, I too am a ham and hold a "new" extra ticket in case anyone cares.

Many hams seem to not understand Part 15 which allows unlicensed operation in almost ANY part of the spectrum. In particular, there are only a very few specific frequency ranges where "intentional radiation" governed by part 15 is not allowed. This simply means that you are building a device which is intended to be a transmitter as opposed to being one accidentally. Computers, for example, transmit accidentally and are therefore goverened by part 15.

There are also specific ranges, such as those used by wireless phones and 802.11b, where there are bands set aside with specific restrictions on power, antenna size, etc.

Even if there is no such range in the 430mhz band one can still use that band as long as you restrict the field strength of your transmitter to 200 microvolts/meter measured at a distance of three meters from the antenna. From a practical perspective this is a transmitter that if placed inside a small building probably would not radiate significantly beyond the walls of the building.

Part 15 transmission should not intefere with licensed transmissions and hams are very protective of their hard won spectrum space. Thus hams seem to frequenly speak out against unlicensed usage even when it might not be warrented as they have experienced significant inteference and spectrum space loss over the years. While it doesn't necessarily sound like this is inappropriate use of 430mhz, whenever you are operating close to ham bands it would behove you to be sure you are operating within the bounds of the law. Not becuase "it's the law", but because hams are very protective and self-policing and you are more likely to get a complaint than if you are in one of the specific part-15 ranges.

On the other hand, the comments on here that suggest it's no big deal to cause interference seem to reflect the general ignorance of slashdot in regards to radio/electronics. Before you start talking about "leaky transmitters" sic, and rules you have never read, perhaps you should go read a book or two on the subject.

/plurvert

As a former ham (still got the license, but haven't done anything with it in years), it's kinda depressing to see that they don't even know what amateur radio is -- which led them to illegally use the 70-cm UHF band, thinking "amateur" meant "do whatever you want".

They needed a frequency in an unlicensed or research/experimental band.

The used/surplus market can really be your friend once you get to the States. Some areas are better supplied than others. For example, the Seattle area has RE-PC, which bills itself as the largest used/recycled computer place in the northwest (probably true -- I've not found any other computer surplus place in the region quite so large). I see rackmount cases and parts turn up there all the time, at both the retail locations, and the prices are generally pretty cheap.

The SF Bay Area part of California has a generous supply of used electronics and computer places too numerous to list in any detail here. At the risk of load-testing my web server, I have a page at this link that lists all the Bay Area surplus places that I knew of as of my last (annual) trip to the area in 2003.

I would, however, like to point out one place in particular in the Bay Area. Weird Stuff Warehouse has to be seen to be believed, though their prices can be a little on the high side, IMO.

I also have store and swap meet listings for the Puget Sound region and the metro Portland area of Oregon.

Outside of the retail surplus scene, amateur ("ham") radio swap meets can also be excellent sources of such parts. I bought my original rack case from one of the Bay Area events back in 2000, and it is still serving me well today. You can search for hamfests close to whatever area you'll be moving to at this link.

I hope that helps. Rackmount stuff is great fun, and scrounging for it (and other parts) even more so. Definitely part of the "Tinkerer's Spirit."

Enjoy your travels.

One interesting part of the development of color tv relates to the YUV color space used. This color space calculates color by the difference between two of the channels, the third channel is the detail.

There are infinitely-many sets of primary colours you could use to represent RGB colour. In an RGB colour space any set of three linearly-independent vectors will do for the primary colours. The YUV model was designed for compatibility (Y = black and white) and realism, since the U and V primaries are closely related to important colours like human skin tones. Can't have people looking like Vulcans, now can we? :-)

We never had a colour TV when I was growing up. Always black and white. When we moved out to the country colour was irrelevant anyway (snowy pictures look much worse in colour), until we got a satellite system.

Historical tidbit: the Apollo video from the Moon used a frame-sequential colour system, which was converted once it got back to Earth.

Technical tidbit: some ham radio folks use a system called Slow Scan TV ( SSTV), which transmits still images over the radio. They usually use a line-sequential colour system, which gives the signals a distinctive waltz-like sound. Your best bet for such signals is around 14230 kHz. People used to use all kinds of weird and wonderful dedicated hardware, but now a computer with a sound card is the usual setup.

...laura

If you don't believe check out these related stories, dating way back

Still, it's new to the US. ZDNet had something similar a few weeks back

Okay, so the reliability of this information is obviously suspect given the source, but over the weekend I caught an Art Bell show on the radio, where the President of the American Relay Radio League claimed that interference from this kind of power line networking would essentially kill broadcasting in North America over a wide spectrum- if I remember correctly, something like 20Mhz-80Mhz. Art Bell's recap is here.

Looking into it now a little further, some of the American Relay Radio Leauge documents and links has some mentions of problems for radio astronomy and a few other low-profile endeavors.

Anyway, I had no idea this was a possible outcome, and these claims make me think that perhaps it's better to insist that we really work on existing non-interfering technologies before we kill one of the few sections of spectrum that an individual can use on his own.

Check it out, its real:

http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/#Video

An article regarding their concern is here.

... then pick one up cheap at a Hamfest.

While I agree that the ARRL has a vested interest in this debate, I think it is fair to say that they know a thing or two about interference (see this link for instance). Not only has this been shown to interfere, think of the interference to BPL. Allowing this to go forward will force something to give.

This isn't just a local problem either. Have a look at this report from the ECC (they are a European agency) [NOTE: Sorry, it is in MS Word format]. They clearly believe that interference potential in the frequency range up to 30 MHz "are such that the risk of interference to radio services cannot be limited to a national or regional scale" (see the section entitled "General Conclusions of the report). This is a 112 page report, and while I freely admit I have not read all of it, they clearly say that this won't be a local problem, so just leaving the city isn't going to help. They go on to say that complete interference level restrictions won't work since so many devices currently give off interference in these ranges, but that the BPL (Called PLT in this report) will give "much higher" level of interference.

Several people in this tread have argued that amateur radio is a "dinosaur" or lived passed its usefulness. Many have already pointed out the problems with this. In many parts of the country, HF radio is the only reliable form of communication. In emergency situations HAM radio has proved itself many times over. Have a look here for instance. FEMA have defended the need for amateur radio on numerous occasions.

There is more at stake here than HAM. Have a look at this chart. Of particular interest are the chunks that are noted as "Radio Astronomy". Have a look at this report. Of note here is that the radio astronomy bands have issues with interference already. Solar and molecular cloud observations fall in these wavelengths. Do we really want to add to the pollution of the electromagnetic spectrum? The BPL system will also be subject to interference. This seems like a lose-lose situation to me.

http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/#Video

Shocking. No pun intended.

Amen. The interference this service causes on the amature bands is well documented at the ARRL website. I know there is the usual cry that Amature Radio is dead, and isn't useful, and what have you. But the fact is the amature radio service is a vital emergency service, and has a large population of experienced old-school hardware hackers who are still experimenting and adding to the art.

Broadband is good.

Broadband over powerlines - not so good.

What about the amazing story of the Amateur Radio satallite Ostcar 7 that was launched in 1974, operated for six years, then died due to a shorted battery, only to re-awaken from the dead in 2002 after 21 years of silence.

So we have satellites that work after having been dead longer than your satellites have been alive.

Nyeah.

G.

As this chart shows, the frequencies used by CATV systems (the CATV column) uses the same freqs as many over the air services (over-air column). Where these overlap, there is the chance of interference in both directions. Have a crosshatch pattern on a channel between 18 and 22? Likely a pager service transmitter is leaking into the cable system. It starts to get dangerous for channels 14-16 and 98-99 - they're right over aircraft comm and nav freqs. If a bad leak happens on those channels, it could endanger lives.

By the way, the dark black boxes on this chart indicate the vast amounts of spectrum hams have been granted the use of. Not a lot, in the grand scheme of things.

We simply cannot tolerate the loss of HF communications. It is a matter of safety and national security. There is also no telling what these signals will do to sensitive medical equipment designed to run on clean 60hz power. BPL may constitute a direct as well is indirect threat to human life.

BPL will also certainly reduce our ability to listen to foreign broadcast on the shortwave bands. Looks like ClearChannel will be the only thing we'll be allowed to hear.

I am yet to see any sort of comprehensive study on the environmental effects of modulating power lines (a damn difficult task without BPL in the mix), there has been a lot of FUD but very little research. I do not know what rating power lines they intend to transmit these signals over, but I have spent many an interesting hour reading about the effects that the existing 50-60Hz AC current has on the ionised air around high tension power lines. Regardless of the more esoteric "corona flow" and "ionic squirt" of high voltage lines, it is a bad idea to expand our power lines into higher frequencies.
The non-ionizing portion of the spectrum can be subdivided into:

• The optical radiation portion, where electron excitation can occur (visible light, infrared light)
• The portion where the wavelength is smaller than the body, and heating via induced currents can occur (MW and higher-frequency RF).
• The portion where the wavelength is much larger than the body, and heating via induced currents seldom occurs (lower-frequency RF, power frequencies, static fields).

Heh ok, tinhat off now. :)

Q.

If you need a hobby, get a CB or something, but the rest of us want our internet.

The ARRL is here

Their home page mentions a document the FCC released yesterday that at least acknowledges the interference BPL will cause.

Kevin

You might find it a coincidence, but I can assure you it is not, that the most knowledgable people in the world on issues related to radio and especially radio interference, are radio engineers, and a good deal of them either work for, or participate in, the Amateur Radio community. It is a little more than a hobby to these guys, and a lot you have now and will have in the future (cordless phones, cell phones, TV, etc.) you owe to these people. If you stick you nose up above 1 GHz, these obsolete hobby practitioners are working and playing with the "must have" toys you will enjoy later. Where do you think the must haves that you cry about now came from?

You are a complete idiot if you think that your need to download porn shold justify wiping out a significant part of the radio spectrum.

And you are a complete fucking idiot if you think that amateur radio is holding back the internet in any way. This isn't an issue of amateur radio (or all the affected emergency services bands) interfering with the internet, it is an issue of this particular data delivery method polluting the established radio spectrum. The onus is on BPL to be RFI-free, not on the rest of the radio spectrum to accomodate an ill-conceived and improperly implemented system. BPL is known to cause interference now, and it will be a nightmare if it is widely deployed.

Hey, just thought I'd jump in and weigh in...
Do you really want this service? It isn't all that much of an improvement over existing broadband services. The only advantage I can see is service to otherwise non-serviceable areas... and you could do that with 802.11b/g if you set up repeaters (or for you hams, run it under Part 97 hihi). Is it really acceptable to wipe out our public service and worldwide broadcast bands for a slight advantage? Please do not support this technology... Even if you don't listen to AM, or SW, or whatever else. We need these bands, if for no other reason simpler than the unique propagation they provide. Please do visit The American Radio Relay League and read what they have to say.
73 de KC2KVY

OK, you're excused --- 'cuz you're wrong.

The internet was down for days in areas close to the disaster during the 9/11 attacks in NYC. "[A]ntique" Ham radio provided important emergency communications while nobody was "online".

Also, as reported by the Assoicated Press, during the blackouts in the Northeast and Midwest last autumn, Ham radio once again rode to the rescue.

These are only two examples of emergency service that ham operators provide on a volunteer basis. There are hundreds if not thousands of volunteer emergency communications organizations standing by "just in case". Such organizations sometimes even operate emergency communications drills within police/sheriff dispatch centers, as well as operate such drills from rustic sites, just to test emergency capabilities. And have fun doing it, I might add, 'cuz it IS a hobby, after all.

For those who think HAM operators have no foundation behind their objections to BPL please visit this site and see results of actual studies on interference.

There is a lot of additional issues surrounding BPL. Such as the fact that power market is regulated and comunications market is not. Utility companies are going to finance their excursion into broadband internet access out of your pocket even if you are not going to use it.

There's the Q-codes that have already been mentioned, and prosigns, but for real message word count reduction look no farther than the ARRL numbered radiogram messages.

Were I on vacation in Florida when a hurrican hit, I could send the message back home that "We are all safe, don't worry. There was only slight damage were we are, and we will be coming home soon." as: ARL ONE ARL FOUR ARL TWO

There is some header information needed by the message passing system (NTS), but the base message goes from 21 words to 6.

K

• Check the ARRL for a ham radio club in your area
• Ask them where you can find an Official Observer (or OO)
• The OO has the expertise to track down the interference and will try to resolve the problem.
• If the OO can't resolve the problem, they should pass the information on to the FCC.

Those hams who responded to the NY attack did what RACES/ARES/SATERN hams (among others) train to do: they provided vital communications links for search & rescue, for disaster command posts, for health and shelter organizations, and for health/welfare traffic.

Rubbernecking is not the same thing as reporting and serving. The emergency service portion of amateur radio had its largest scale emergency response that day, and performed admirably.

Other instances where ham radio has provided very important service:

Every major hurricaine;
The Colorado/West Coast wildfires;
The Columbia accident response.

If it wasn't an essential service, we wouldn't be part of the emergency planning on the local, state, and federal levels. Officials are going so far as to encourage more people to get licensed: Read here.

Jim kc0lpv

The FCC's talking about powerline broadband. Yeah, we're nowhere close to a commercial rollout yet, but at least the regulators are certifying that the plans won't cause massive harm to any other communications tech, so they're about to sign off on it.

Have we just completely forgotten the problem of BPL totally killing HAM radio?

Just some background information for you to read.

The FCC's talking about powerline broadband. Yeah, we're nowhere close to a commercial rollout yet, but at least the regulators are certifying that the plans won't cause massive harm to any other communications tech, so they're about to sign off on it.

Have we just completely forgotten the problem of BPL totally killing HAM radio?

Just some background information for you to read.

The FCC's talking about powerline broadband. Yeah, we're nowhere close to a commercial rollout yet, but at least the regulators are certifying that the plans won't cause massive harm to any other communications tech, so they're about to sign off on it.

Have we just completely forgotten the problem of BPL totally killing HAM radio?

Just some background information for you to read.

What does the FCC have to do with a Canadian outfit, like the one mentioned? Yes, the Canadian government has their own equivilant to the FCC, but the rules arn't identical, so your siting is pretty much irrelavant.
In this case, as the technology was developed by Amperion of Andover, MA and Columbus, OH, and is being pushed quite hard by them in the US, what the huge market of the US does and thus what the FCC says could make or break them. The Canadian test is just a small market probe.

Personally I think BPL is a bad solution to a problem, and one that has the potential to wipe out radio spectrum of tremendous value.

We've talked about this before. Broadband over power lines is not only a threat to Amateur Radio but to other communication services including government and homeland security. Plus, it's highly susceptible to ingress interference from licensed radio stations as well.

We've talked about this before. Broadband over power lines is not only a threat to Amateur Radio but to other communication services including government and homeland security. Plus, it's highly susceptible to ingress interference from licensed radio stations as well.