ARRL renews demand for FCC to
shut down New York BPL field trial
The ARRL has once again asked the FCC to shut down a BPL field trial
now under way in Briarcliff Manor, New York. It's also asked the Commission
to withdraw the system's Part 5 Experimental authorization.
After the League's first shutdown request in October, the chief engineer
of Ambient Corporation, which provides the pilot project's BPL hardware
and holds the Experimental license, suggested that Amateur Radio interference
complaints had been addressed through improved software and notching performance.
Not so, says a December 17 letter to the FCC from ARRL General Counsel
Chris Imlay, W3KD. Writing on the League's behalf, Imlay contends that
the FCC is not sticking to its commitment to prevent interference to Amateur
Radio from BPL systems and to enforcement where interference occurs.
"Based on the Commission's complete inaction to date with respect
to documented interference complaints at various BPL test sites, the commitment
seems vacuous," Imlay said. "ARRL demands that this BPL site
be shut down immediately, pending compliance determinations and a demonstration
that the system can operate without causing harmful interference."
ARRL member Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, a resident of the community, has documented
interference, complaints and related information on his "BPL
in Briarcliff Manor" Web site.
Imlay says another complaint from Crosswell and the League's own
observations on December 16 confirmed the existence of harmful
interference on 20 meters "sufficient to preclude virtually all Amateur
Radio communications."
ARRL observations December 16 indicated that BPL noise "precludes
or
repeatedly disrupts" ham radio communication using typical receivers.
The
harmful interference was noted at a distance of approximately
three-quarters of a mile from the modem, affecting a wide area, "unlike
Part 15 point-source radiators," Imlay said.
The December 17 letter went to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief David Solomon,
FCC Deputy Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) Chief Bruce Franca
and OET's Experimental Licensing Division Chief James Burtle. Copies went
to Ambient Chief Engineer Yehuda Cern and to FCC Special Counsel Riley
Hollingsworth. In cooperation with utility Consolidated Edison, Ambient
has been operating the Briarcliff Manor BPL system under an experimental
license, WD2XEQ.
The FCC should shut down the Briarcliff Manor BPL field trial and pull
the Experimental license too, Imlay argued.
"Given the unsupported and demonstrably false allegations contained
in the Ambient October 12, 2004, response to ARRL's interference complaint,"
he concluded, "the Commission should rescind the experimental authorization
as well, and determine other appropriate sanctions against Ambient Corporation."
The Briarcliff Manor BPL system was the focus of a March 2004 front-page
Wall Street Journal article, "In This Power Play, High-Wire Act Riles
Ham-Radio Fans," by technology writer Ken Brown. ARRL staff members
accompanied Brown to the BPL site so he could hear the interference
firsthand.
Source: ARRL Letter - courtesy of The
American Radio Relay League
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