BPL

[Frank Gentges KØBRA]

Ed,

Our club president, Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, is off in Geneva at the WARC 
conference.  Meanwhile, being left alone, AMRAD members are working to 
gather some real-world information on BPL.

We are interested in seeing what kind of interference BPL might create.  We 
are aware of two local communities where BPL tests are underway.  They are 
Potomac, MD and Manassas, VA.  We have located one street address in 
Manassas where a user is located.

We are equipping my van with some gear so we can drive around the 
neighborhoods which are part of the tests and see what interference we 
might be able to observe.

In the van we have:

HP 141T/8553L/8554A spectrum analyzer,
Wandel Golterman AT463 selective voltmeter going to 18 MHz
AMRAD active antenna
Antenna Research Associates ODC-100 calibrated e-field antenna
TenTec RX320 receiver

We hope to find the basic area of the HF spectrum  where there are 
emissions with the spectrum analyzer.  We can measure the narrowband field 
strength with the selective voltmeter.  Most important, once we know where 
to look, we can observe the impact of the interference on a modern HF 
receiver with the RX320.  Once we have actually done some observations, we 
may be coming back to you with questions on our technique.  Right now, I am 
not sure what questions we have for you.

Right now, we are concerned that the current BPL testing might be limited 
to areas with underground power systems.  Once the FCC completes its review 
the BPL systems might then be deployed in areas with overhead power lines 
leaving amateurs in a difficult position of lodging interference complaints 
on an "approved" system.

Time is short but we plan to file comments with the FCC and we will be 
looking to share them with the ARRL.

We have found your BPL web page useful and your C63 Committee presentation 
especially useful.  If you have any suggestions or if you become aware of 
sites in our area where we can look, please let us know.  We are 
particularly  interested in finding where they are testing with overhead 
power lines.

73
Frank


Frank Gentges KØBRA
<fgentges at mindspring.com>
LF web site at <http://www.amrad.org/projects/lf>