kfolsom
Where the fit hits the shan
Premium
join:2003-01-31
Yucaipa, CA
 ·Verizon west (ex G..
edit:
February 17th, @07:24PM
| reply to GoodBuddy
Re: Good
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time to elaborate on your position.
You raise some interesting points, and this is definitely an extremely polarizing issue.
Consider, though, the efficient "long haul" nature of HF. The spectrum that is proposed by BPL is 2-80 MHz. The HF spectrum is 2-30 (thereabouts) MHz. In order to facilitate the successful deployment of BPL, all of the services that presently are allocated to HF (not just the US, but all over the world) would have to be dismantled, as well as all the services that reside in the remaining spectrum of 30-80 MHz. This is just not practical. BPL has been tried and has failed in numerous other countries.
Hams have only a small portion of HF... Less than 10% of the HF spectrum is allocated to us. The reallocation of sufficient spectrum to make BPL feasible would completely eliminate our use of HF. This is not only unacceptable but wasteful. The number of people that would benefit from BPL in this country alone is vastly outweighed by the number of people who benefit from HF in all its numerous uses.
That hams are the only major voice in this matter is not hard to understand if you consider that there are government/public sector employees who have their own views but are prohibited by law from stating such. That leaves the private sector to hash it out in forums such as this; a virtual vacuum, wherein the only players are at each other's throats to get the last word.
Hams versus CBers: A tough nut to crack, to be sure. Naturally there are those who think the other is/are profoundly bad and has no place in the RF spectrum. I happen to believe that ham and CB are both valuable and viable for their own virtues and I accept both as such. There are many more problems, however, with CB that are due mainly to little enforcement by the FCC, fostering a free-for-all mentality that sometimes spills over into the collective opinions of many individuals... For good or bad this is merely a fact. There are CBers and hams who are not so good. But the majority of hams, as a percentage, compared to CBers, are good operators who police ourselves.
The people in the rural areas are not likely to get BPL. The cost of provisioning the lines with all the equipment necessary to provide the level of service that BPL vendors promise far outstrips the costs associated with upgrading and provisioning telephone lines and infrastructures with DSL. This is the "dirty little secret" the BPL vendors are not telling. For this reason(among others which have been exhaustively discussed) BPL is not a viable technology.
I understand your position and frustration about hams being a "members only" club, but we are not all like that. You may have met a few like that, but I assure you the VAST majority of us are not that way. We love RF communications for the sake of it and for the experimentation and everything else that ham radio has to offer. For myself, ham alone is not enough; I use CB, FRS, MURS, 49 MHz and any other radio I can legally get my hands on. It's about perspective; there are those who have an all consuming hunger for anything that they lose sight of what is important.
"Tyranny of the majority" is one I have not heard in a while... I'm glad that certain facets of our society are not "up for a vote", because this would disenfranchise minorities. The special attachment we hams have for HF is the ability to speak directly to another person on the other side of the world without having to be physically connected by a phone line or internet software. I admit this puts us at odds with the BPL/IP camp.
I would be overjoyed to see broadband in every household. I agree with you in that DSL must be rolled out to every house that has a phone line. It's a lot cheaper and more reliable than BPL promises to be, but the BPL vendors have not told the public about what the cost of deployment will be. That is a shell game that the customers are bound to lose. When BPL fails because of (legal) RFI, the customers of the utilities will be left holding the bag, because the investor's money will have to be repaid. Electricity rates will skyrocket and many people will lose their life savings, retirement, etc...
I understand ham radio is not for everyone. But all hobbies are like that. Not everyone "gets" another person's hobby. I think this causes a lot of discord on this issue.
In closing, your example of the HF spectrum being like a public beach is an apt one, but I would add also that BPL wants the whole beach, not just a portion of it. Hams have always been concerned not with preserving only our "fair share" of the spectrum but also the entire HF band for all who need it. BPL is the ultimate example of "bloatware".
Cheers.
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I once accidentally spilled spot remover on my dog and he disappeared. You know what I hate? Indian Givers... No, I take that back. »www.folsomtech.com |
