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www.southgatearc.org
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Concord's hams doing it the right wayRadio Amateurs in Concord, Massachusetts are closely monitoring plans by the town's electric utility to implement a Broadband over Power Line system using gear supplied by PowerGrid Communications. But they also say that so far there has been a lot of cooperation between the supplier and the Concord ham radio community in planning the system. Steve Telsey, N1BDA, of the Colonial Wireless Association says that PowerGrid's Chief Technology Officer has already held a meeting with the local ham community and brought samples of the equipment to demonstrate. N1BDA describes their relationship with the company as cordial and very cooperative. He says that PowerGrid is aware that hams are very concerned about this system and that they are willing to notch out the ham bands. But Telsey also notes that this will not address problems faced by shortwave listeners and users of time signal stations like WWV. There are currently no BPL operations in Concord and that any pilot program would not commence until at least February or March. The BPL database indicates that the proposed new system will include the entire community of Concord with some overhead and underground installation. Approximately 130 nodes would be deployed. N1BDA says that the lighting company is still exploring a possible business model. He says that it is still possible the whole thing might get canceled. For now, Colonial Wireless Association officers are requesting that the matter be kept low key so that negotiations can move forward in a spirit of cooperation as they have been, so far.
Source: Amateur Radio Newsline, K9HI, Eastern Mass AR News
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