W1RFI
join:2003-05-12
Burlington, CT
| Summary of status of the system
A couple of months ago, I went to the local Concord Amateur Radio club to give a presentation on BPL to the group. The local electric utility sent two representatives and PowerGrid sent one of their Vice Presidents all the way from Idaho. It was pretty apparent to me that both groups were pretty serious about communicating with the local Amateurs and ARRL.
I ran through the usual background and outlined the problems that can and will be encountered on any spectrum that BPL is using at or near the FCC emissions limits. I then ran through some of the progress being made by the industry.
First, the involved BPL equipment is made by Corinex. It uses the 200 Mb/s DS2 chipset. As outlined in other articles on this site or on ARRL's BPL page (»www.arrl.org/bpl), DS2 has reasonable notching that can protect any specific spectrum. I outlined the cooperation between ARRL and DS2. An article on ARRL's web page noted that lab tests of the DS2 equipment looked pretty good.
I then outlined my findings in Houston, TX, with the Corinex system being operated by CenterPoint and IBM. There, a few glitches notwithstanding, we were able to see that properly done, the system was able to protect Amateur Radio reasonably well.
As ARRL's article about the Corinex system points out, though, it takes good implementatio and good communication and cooperation to make that happen. In Houston, that communication exists, and from what I saw in Concord, the involved companies are equally serious about turning words into action. I look forward to working with the operator and utility there.
That good design and communication doesn't exist everywhere. In Manassas, VA, the BPL operator is not doing what it takes to eliminate the interference reported; they are hiding behind the rules that permit them to cause interference to mobile stations. In Briarcliff Manor, NY, the BPL company there is not addressing interference head on -- the round of denials and diversion continues to this day, despite my repeated offers to help them document whether their next generation product will overcome the deficiencies seen in the earlier product.
In the long run, in my opinion, it remains to be seen whether BPL will be finanicially viable and will be reliable enough in its noisy environment to be used as intended. Pretty clearly, it has some in-premise and utility application use. But none of this potential can be realized until the BPL industry as a whole responsibly assumes its obligations not to cause interference.
At this point, some in the industry are doing that well; others are not.
I think we have an opportunity in Concord to bring all of these players together to implement a system from the getgo with good communication and a positive approach to resolving problems. The players all seem to have a reasonable approach and good intentions. I will certainly do what I can to help make that happen, and I hope the others will as well.
Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab
225 Main St
Newington, CT 06111
Tel: 860-594-0318
Internet: »www.arrl.org/bpl
Email: w1rfi@arrl.org |
