BPL tales of two Texas towns

An informational and lobbying campaign by local radio amateurs has headed off a broadband over power line (BPL) technology deal with a small Texas town that owns and operates the local electric utility.

The city council in Castroville - a town of about 3500 inhabitants - voted 3-2 August 8 not to go into the BPL business with Broadband Horizons.

"For now, at least, BPL is a dead issue in Castroville, Texas," said ARRL member Ray Martinez, N5VRE, who credits the Amateur Radio community with researching BPL and helping inform decision makers and town residents of
their concerns regarding its interference potential. Martinez says their message in letters to the editor and in contacts with city council members was that, while radio amateurs tend to support and embrace new technology, their collective opposition to the BPL proposal was "related solely to the interference issue."

But while hams in Castroville were successful, the same BPL purveyor was able to chalk up a victory in the City of Flatonia, which also owns its own utility system. The town's BPL experience was the focus of a very upbeat report August 16 on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program. NPR had contacted ARRL while producing the BPL segment, and the report that aired included a brief comment by ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, addressing BPL's interference potential.

"BPL that operates at the FCC limits can and does cause strong local interference problems on any spectrum it's using," declared Hare, who got approximately eight seconds in the approximately six-minute NPR piece.

But the BPL industry, NPR's Wade Goodwyn went on to assert, "has come up with a technological fix" to BPL interference to radio amateurs in the form of notching.
Hare contends that what the network neglected to include from the much longer interview he gave NPR were his further observations that notching in and of itself is "not sufficient" to reduce interference to Amateur Radio or other HF users.

"We stressed several times and in several ways that notching helps, but it still leaves some interference to Amateur Radio," Hare recounted, "and that in system after system we have seen, international shortwave broadcast
spectrum was not notched." Based on notching efforts in earlier BPL field trials, Hare says the BPL industry "is far from demonstrating that notching is a practical and effective way to address interference."

Included in the NPR report were BPL-flattering interviews with Flatonia Mayor Lori Berger, who called the $200,000 BPL deal "critical to the town's future." Also featured was a local woman who lauded the system's ability to quickly download e-mailed photos of her great grandchildren. Located midway between Houston and San Antonio, Flatonia boasts a dozen ham radio licensees among its some 1500 residents. The BPL system has been in operation since
early August.

ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says he was especially dismayed to hear Goodwyn's report, particularly after he and Hare had expended considerable effort communicating their concerns about the
technology to Goodwyn. "I find it deeply disappointing to hear his sales pitch, in which major known flaws in BPL schemes are given one passing comment," he reacted. "NPR has a history of presenting fair, whole and balanced information on topics, but this piece lacked all of those
qualities."

In its own 2003 comments to the FCC in the BPL proceeding, National Public Radio urged the FCC to "ensure that any use of BPL technology will not disrupt existing services," and, in particular, interfere with radio receivers. NPR's comments even cited an ARRL study that concluded BPL poses "a significant threat to Amateur Radio operations (and broadcasting) in the HF and low-VHF (TV channels 2-6) region."

Meanwhile, Texas Gov Rick Perry is mulling whether to sign Senate Bill 5 (SB 5), legislation that promotes and encourages BPL in the Lone Star State. The measure includes provisions to shut down interfering BPL systems.

More information is on the Web site of ARRL North Texas Section Manager Tom Blackwell, N5GAR.

Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The American Radio Relay League

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