Strong support for Amateur Radio at PLC conference

There was strong support for Amateur Radio at the PLC conference held in Pretoria, South Africa, on Thursday and Friday last week.

Graham Hartlett and Hans van de Groenendaal presented Amateur Radio's concern about the interference potential of PLC and called for transparency and involvement of the SARL when pilots and tests are being conducted.

Virtually all speakers referred to the concerns that Amateur Radio Organisations have expressed about the roll out of PLC. The joint SARL - SA AMSAT presentation was well received and resulted in a 45 questions and answer session which carried over into the panel discussion which lasted well over an hour. A representative of Mitsubishi Electric told the panel that the second generation of PLC equipment does not cause interference and features a very efficient notching facility.

The conference was opened by Wotjek Skowronski, General Manager Engineering and Technology at ICASA. He said that ICASA will always respect the rights of the radio spectrum users. He said that ICASA has a well equipped Interference Investigation section and requested that incidences of interference be reported.

Prof John Newbury of the Open University in the UK made a presentation on standards and interference limits for PLC and the research that his team is carrying out. He noted the close cooperation he has received from the ARRL, RSGB and the IARU. He said that the IARU played an important role in various standard committees. Tests are continuing and he expects that, at a Standards Conference to be held in Cape Town towards the end of October, PLC interference limits will be agreed.

On the second day the Chairman, Charles Kuun, the driver of PLC in Tshwane said that he was pleased that the SARL was represented and invited a closer relationship with the PLC Industry and Municipalities planning to use PLC. In his presentation he referred to some 300 homes in Rooiwal village being equipped with PLC in the near future and invited the SARL and SA AMSAT to work with the municipality to check on interference and help resolve any interference problems.

In a teleconference presentation, the Director of Utilities of the city of Manassas (near Washington) John Hewa described how the city had rolled out PLC to its 30 000 citizens. He said that has worked very closely with the ARRL and local radio clubs to ensure that no interference is being caused on Amateur frequencies. He said that using the notching technique, amateur frequencies were excluded in the PLC signals transmitted over the power grid.

In the Gauteng area a PLC working group has been established which meets regularly. The SARL and SA AMSAT have been invited to join the group and participate in its deliberations.

Visit the SARL web at www.sarl.org.za for regular updates and reports.

Courtesy of The South African Radio League

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