ARRL RENEWS INTERFERENCE COMPLAINT AGAINST AMBIENT CORP BPL INSTALLATION

[Andre Kesteloot]

==>ARRL RENEWS INTERFERENCE COMPLAINT AGAINST AMBIENT CORP BPL INSTALLATION

In the wake of continued FCC inaction in response to several previous
complaints, on January 5 the ARRL filed a renewal of the complaint against
the Ambient Corporation's Broadband over Power Line system in Briarcliff
Manor, New York. The BPL system is operated by Ambient, on power lines owned
and operated by Consolidated Edison, under an experimental FCC
authorization.

The latest communication points out that the FCC, without adjudicating
ARRL's repeated complaints about interference throughout the amateur 20
meter band, renewed Ambient's experimental license for an additional term,
from August 1, 2005 to August 1, 2007. "The Briarcliff Manor BPL system
currently (still) causes harmful interference to Amateur Radio
communications and it is not compliant with applicable FCC part 15
regulations," according to the ARRL complaint. "Neither," it continues, "is
it compliant with the terms of the experimental authorization granted by the
Commission, most recently on August 1, 2005." 

It continues: "ARRL reiterates its request, now more than a year old, that
the BPL facility.be instructed to shut down immediately; and that it not
resume operation unless the facility is shown to be in full compliance with
Commission rules regarding radiated emissions and with the non-interference
requirement.of the Commission's Rules and the terms of the experimental
authorization. Finally, information about it must be listed in the BPL
publicly accessible database." 

Appended to the January 5 complaint letter was a 25 page engineering report
entitled "Additional Testing of BPL System in Briarcliff Manor, NY." ARRL
Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, wrote the report after conducting further
tests at the site December 5, 2005. The report points out that he had
conducted similar tests twice before during 2005, and three times during
2004. In this earlier testing, Hare found significant violations of FCC
rules regarding Part 15 emissions limits.
 
The January 5 ARRL complaint, entitled "Continued Request for Immediate
Cessation of Operation," was signed by ARRL Counsel Christopher D. Imlay,
W3KD, and was sent to the FCC's Joseph Casey, Bruce Franca and James Burtle.
Casey is Chief, Spectrum Enforcement Division, while Franca serves as Acting
Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, and Burtle is Chief,
Experimental Licensing Division. A copy was also sent to the counsel for
Ambient Corporation. 

For more about BPL, see the BPL pages on the ARRLWeb
<http//www.arrl.org/bpl>.