BPL test sites to be deployed in San Diego county

Staff members from San Diego Gas & Electric Company
("SDG&E") made a presentation to the San Diego DX Club on
February 23, 2005 and announced that SDG&E plans to deploy multiple BPL test sites in San Diego County at as-yet
unspecified locations.

Several equipment vendors are expected to be involved, each with its own test area and frequency plan. The first system may be in place as early as June 2005, with
others coming on line shortly thereafter.

SDG&E staff said they were unimpressed by early BPL
equipment, but were encouraged by their December visit to
Cinergy's BPL system in Cincinnati that was said to pass some 50,000 homes without creating radio interference concerns. Furthermore, they believed that Cinergy had a viable financial model for making BPL work. Lee Krevat, IT Manager in charge of strategy and planning for SDG&E, was the lead presenter.

In response, ARRL Laboratory Manager, Ed Hare, comments that while the Current Technologies equipment he says is used by Cinergy has reduced the interference potential to amateur radio operators because of frequency notching, the BPL system operates at full signal strength in other allocated spectrum, so the largest interference concerns have been shifted to other places on the dial.

Ed also points out that Cinergy only induces BPL signals
onto the secondary (110/220V) sides of transformers, essentially keeping the signals off the overhead medium voltage lines, thereby helping to contain the interference potential. Nevertheless, the actual performance of each and every BPL system must be closely examined, and nothing can be taken for granted.

Source: CGC Communicator

Other recent stories..