First BPL City > Dismal

Dismal

This is a sad day for broadband. It's going to pollute the airwaves, and it only offers very low speeds. It's time we get 100mbps plus fiber, not sub megabit bpl which will kill hams.

said by Tzale:

---

This is a sad day for broadband. It's going to pollute the airwaves, and it only offers very low speeds. It's time we get 100mbps plus fiber, not sub megabit bpl which will kill hams.

---

said by AD7BK:

---

Don't forget Military, CBers, EOC, if there ever is a diaster like a flood or something and the telephone lines are down BUT power is still up HF will be dead with noise meaning no emergency communications can happen below 80 mhz. I hope that nothing happens like that. But It wont last long. And here in Tacoma it isn't coming we are wired enough.

---

reply to AD7BK
Ever hear of satellite phones? Last time I checked they will still be running incase of emergency No need for hams....

reply to AD7BK
Lets not forget the FAA's brand spanking new Potomac TRACON center in Manassas. This is a regional facility and hence uses HF radio comms for Air-traffic control. It won't take any time at all for FCC to issue a notice to shut down Prospect Street when interference to Potomac TRACON occurs. BTW, the fine is typically on the order of $10,000 per day if you fail to abide by an FCC cease and desist.

reply to Kommie

said by Kommie:

---

Ever hear of satellite phones? Last time I checked they will still be running incase of emergency No need for hams....

---

reply to RFJock
Looks like notching time is overdue as soon as they move BPL overhead from current underground. I wonder what is main.net abilities in deploying this; they should have plenty of experience . Or should we ask Prospect or the City of Manassas BPL Operator, Mr. proBPLguy? These will be exciting times for the BPL Investors.

Unfortunately, notching won't do the trick. By the time you finish notching out all the frequencies which could be deemed "high-risk" for interference on a regional basis, the available contiguous frequency domains would be so small that the BPL speeds would suffer. IMHO, the power co.s need to abandon this flawed technology and look to the future...fiber. There is already significant deployments of fiber in the power grid (OPGL). They just need to suck it up and build out last mile fiber (aka FTTH). If I was a poker player, THAT is the hand I would bet the pot on.

Notching out all the BPL repeaters might work.:D

I think you are more onto horse betting (or more precisely the jockey that rides the horse) than poker.

The BPL Public Relations would be able to spin really good stories if they could cost effectively string the fiber over the powerline. Could still call it Broadband over PowerLine (BPL) kind of like the Corridor 5 Ghz G-line people. main.net could hopefully recover some of the technology by which they finally reach the dwelling from the last transformer onward to the subscriber AC outlets and a neighborhood PLC LAN. I understand that the increased RF background noise may still cause some interference grief within the neighborhood, but at a more workable scale.

As far as the BPL repeaters go, I can only think of disposing them as boat anchors or better as e-bay weird artifacts that may take value over time. I was spammed on this thought but could not find them on ebay yet.

Agreed. RF pollution aside, what REALLY scares me about the main.net architecture is that the BPL signal from pole to residence is delivered on the power line. Though I have not seen the engineering on the device to bypass the transformer, I suspect that it is some form of inductive coupler. Once the system is shut down, would you be comfortable with these things abandoned-in-place? If they happen to fail closed after 15-20 years, now I have MV potential on my residential drop? NO THANK YOU!:o

reply to CheeseWare
Actually, the "grid" already has many places where it carries fiber. It's called OPGL or Optical Ground Line. The multi-fiber bundle is carried in the center of the ground conductor. These are typically found in the HV transmission lines and at the present time are used mainly for grid control systems. But there is multiple redundancy in the number of fiber strands in the cable, so it seems to me it could'nt take all that much to replace non-OPGL ground conductors with OPGL and have a fiber network, carried within the power infrastructure. Even if you only carry fiber to the neighborhood level, WiFi or other wireless could bridge the gap to the household.

BTW, Prospect Street's web page says your BPL modem will be new OR factory refurbished. Do you suppose those units are coming out of Austria?;)

reply to RFJock
In my attempt to recover main.net (and get them to dump their BPL repeaters under pressure from their enlightened heavy weight BPL investors), I am not suggesting an MV bypass with the risk you point out but a Fiber to PLC LAN adapter hosted at the last transformer. I am not sure however if this would be cost effective. It would certainly be in line with more standards, could use multiVendor PLC adapters in the subscriber premises, would have a roadmap and put these people on a better track? They have reached the "walking dead" state and perhaps can get out of it if they are willing to write off past mistakes and move on with the better parts of their offering. We just can't keep bashing at them without giving them better recovery alternatives. Help me out forum-mates.

Just replace the coupler with a transverter.
They can take their 2-80MHz base band and mix it up to 5GHz using a transverter (old ham idea; it's what we used on VHF and up before there was equipment available). The transverter will mix back down when receiving. Then stick the whole thing on the poles or wherever. The thing then operates in the UNII band and all is well. No need to even couple it into the line (like Corridor), or even follow the line!
See
»home.comcast.net/~gbox/

Heck, I'll even help them design the transverter!

reply to dvd536
All I gotta say to all this is
{sarcasm on]

Ohh let's get on HF and stop BPL let's just talk what? You can't hear me? Let me turn on my 1.5kw amp, Turn yours on too...

Ok I can hear you now and you can here me good so how about the Mariners and Seahawks?

(2 minutes later a lynch mob is at the hams door)

What they are outside with their pitch forks and torches?

QSL

Why?

They cant get on the internet.

Oh well tell them part 15 rules say they have to accept interference from us part 97 Amateur radio ops tell them to get cable or dsl!

They say it's to expensive.

Too bad.

But they are ripping my tower down.

Call the cops.

(Cops never come because they are being interfered with a harmonic of the bpl)

Oh my gosh they got a rocket launcher

Call the military
(Military can't be dispatched because they are drowned out by BPL)

(hurricane hits the Virgina coast).
(emergency services are started)

What I cant hear you my damn neighbor is using his BPL connection I don't know what to do...

[Sarcasm off]

BPL won't last long wait till the first disaster or emergency and when the FCC sees that HF is communications are not able to be done due to the interference the BPL will die. Only after both Powells are out of the FCC.

But until then I hope not to hear

Cq dx cq dx this is 5j0&&%^(**&^**)( bpl noise) this is 5J0*^&*(^) (more bpl noise) you cant communicate with a station you cant hear... EVEN with 1.5KW

I am sick and tired of the FCC inability to protect those who give them the most money. (Broadcasters, television channles 2-5 are gone off antennas. Military licensing and other various money makers like the marine and other "pay to be licensed" services....

FCC get your heads out of the clouds of greed and protect the people who pay your salery. And those who provide emergency communications or change it where they are in a area that they cant interfere with ANY communications.. like in 5GHZ

reply to RFJock

said by RFJock:

---

Lets not forget the FAA's brand spanking new Potomac TRACON center in Manassas. This is a regional facility and hence uses HF radio comms for Air-traffic control.

---