Amateur radio BPL team to stress credibility

The Cincinnati area's Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) Amateur Radio team won't ramp up its activities until Cinergy Corp rolls out its BPL system over a broader area than that of typical BPL field trials to date.

ARRL Ohio Section Manager Joe Phillips, K8QOE, says the group - headed by Kirk Swallow, W8QID - will initially study the impact of Cinergy's BPL deployment in two neighborhoods - Hyde Park and Mount Lookout.

"We're not all that geared up, because Cinergy has not established much of a BPL footprint yet," Phillips explained. "We want to see what happens when they do the buildout. That will be the definitive factor."

Cinergy's is being touted as the first large-scale commercial BPL deployment in the US. At this point, Phillips said, the team has seen no formal complaints of interference - just "some reports." But when complaints do start showing up, "I want ham radio to look credible," he emphasized.
"Any interference complaints will be valid." Phillips says the
BPL team - a subcommittee of the Greater Cincinnati Local Interference Committee - aims to gather solid engineering data on any BPL interference cases.

"I have this recurring dream that one of these days we'll walk into Cinergy, we'll have data they can't get from their BPL partners and they'll walk away from it saying it's not worth it," Phillips said, noting that utilities are "very PR conscious." An August 10 article in the Cincinnati Enquirer cites "a flurry of concern among ham radio operators"
and quotes Cinergy and its partner Current Communications Group as saying that Amateur Radio operators' interference fears "are unfounded."

That assertion flies in the face of the growing number of BPL-related interference reports being tracked by ARRL.

Phillips, who's also mentioned in the Enquirer article, predicts the "massive antenna" system that will result from Cinergy's planned widespread deployment will raise the noise floor to undesirable levels.

"We're not interested in having them fix every little thing," he said, referring to the sorts of "interference mitigation" techniques BPL providers have used to date, such as notching of amateur frequencies. "We are interested in seeing them do what FCC Part 15 rules require - not cause
interference to licensed spectrum users."

Phillips also praised the Cincinnati Enquirer for soliciting Amateur Radio's perspective in the BPL controversy.
"We don't have to seek it out," he said. "We're now a permanent part of the debate." He said he's in the process of contacting all amateur licensees in the affected
neighborhoods - some five or six dozen in all - to enlist their cooperation with the BPL team.

The BPL rollout initially will make broadband service available to some 8000 customers. While Cinergy isn't saying publicly, it's estimated that 1000 or more customers already have signed up for the service.

Cinergy eventually hopes to have up to 55,000 subscribers on board by the end of its first year. Plans call for expanding BPL service to Northern Kentucky and to the remainder of the utility's Southwest Ohio service area next year.

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

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