N0JCG
join:2003-07-18
Minneapolis, MN | Corridor is onto something! I agree with RF engineer. The Corridor pictures look exactly like a G-line. The QST article you may been thinking of is "Putting the G-line to work" by George Hatherell K6LK in the June 1974 edition. There is another reference at the article »www.rubytron.com/pdf/RadWire_history.pdf
Note the reference to a community television system in the 50's in Helena MT where this was used instead of coax. It was found that users just had to point their antennas to the powerline to pick up the TV signal! Now fast foward to:
»www.rubytron.com/ where they are selling an indoor G-line based system!
I don't think an uninsulated power line is a problem. All the utility has to do is string another, dead, insulated wire across the poles where needed.
Best of all, this thing works best ABOVE 50MHZ! |
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| said by N0JCG:
I agree with RF engineer. The Corridor pictures look exactly like a G-line. The QST article you may been thinking of is "Putting the G-line to work" by George Hatherell K6LK in the June 1974 edition. There is another reference at the article »www.rubytron.com/pdf/RadWire_history.pdf
Isn't it ironic that Amateurs were talking about this in 1974 ?
quote:
Note the reference to a community television system in the 50's in Helena MT where this was used instead of coax. It was found that users just had to point their antennas to the powerline to pick up the TV signal! Now fast foward to:
»www.rubytron.com/ where they are selling an indoor G-line based system!
Whoop, there it is ! Rubytron's coupling unit looks just like Corridor's.
quote:
I don't think an uninsulated power line is a problem. All the utility has to do is string another, dead, insulated wire across the poles where needed.
Good point. A secondary line wouldn't have any really nasty requirements for mounting on the poles as it wouldn't be carrying high voltage. Come to think of it, there's no reason they couldn't use this on the ground wire instead of the "hot" cable. I seem to recall Corridor's pictures with the workmen installing it on a hot cable.
quote:
Best of all, this thing works best ABOVE 50MHZ!
Amen ! There's much more spectrum available at 2.4 and 5 Ghz, so a faster system could be built. The upper and middle UNII bands have around 200 Mhz of spectrum alone, versus the 80 Mhz in the HF/VHF low spectrum that the current BPL vendors are eyeing up. This is really a win/win situation all around. I'm beginning to feel more confident this new BPL is feasible. Main.net, Ambient, Amperion and others are in trouble. |
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N0JCG
join:2003-07-18
Minneapolis, MN | The 1974 connection to ham radio was not lost on me. Once again we were there relatively early.
Nothing beats a poor technology like a better technology! Any utility CEO worth his stock options would see that a fiber to the neighborhood/UNII to the user option is the way to go, not HF BPL. |
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| reply to rf_engineer
Re: stringing new cabling If you are to do this and talking this kind of bandwidth, would you not be better off to string fiber over the powerline? I am guessing that the cost of stringing fiber is not all that different from stringing other material. Where is the cost saving (&risk reduction) on this new form of BPL?
[text was edited by author 2003-10-22 11:33:02] |
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N0JCG
join:2003-07-18
Minneapolis, MN | You are right, if you have to string something between the poles it might as well be fiber. The G-line would be an alternative (one of many) to bring the UNII signal into the premises, since those lines are almost always insulated. It could also be used to ship the signal around the neighborhood.
A problem with fiber is that it is pricy to "tap". That was one advantage of HF BPL. G-line gives a "tapable" local distribution field at 5GHZ, much like a long skinny cell tower. |
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