ARRL's BPL pledge

The League has vowed to maintain pressure on the FCC to act on complaints of broadband over power line (BPL) interference to Amateur Radio.

The FCC's unanimous adoption August 3 of a Memorandum Opinion and Order (MO&O) in response to 15 petitions for reconsideration of the Commission's BPL rules triggered the ARRL response. The MO&O went into effect September 22.

"We will aggressively pursue enforcement in BPL interference cases," promised ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ. "Those deploying BPL systems that cause harmful interference to Amateur Radio will regret it." An ARRL delegation met with FCC Enforcement Bureau and Office of
Engineering and Technology (OET) staffers August 16 to discuss the Commission's response to BPL interference complaints.

The MO&O denied most requests that the FCC reconsider portions of its October 2004 Order adopting rules to govern BPL systems. Several petitions -- including one from the ARRL -- called on the Commission to strengthen rules aimed at protecting licensed radio systems from BPL interference. Instead, in a new rule revealed when the FCC made the MO&O public, the FCC drew a line in the sand regarding how much interference protection mobile operators deserve from BPL systems.

§15.611(c)(1)(iii) provides that BPL operators do not have to reduce emission levels below established FCC permissible limits by any more than 20 dB below 30 MHz and 10 dB above 30 MHz to resolve harmful interference complaints. The FCC called these levels "modestly above the noise level."

ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, points out these levels would be some 25 dB higher than the median values for man-made noise in residential areas and up to 40 dB higher than the minimum values hams use for reliable
communication. The new rule does not apply to fixed stations.

"Egregious" was the word Sumner used to describe the action in his "It Seems to Us" editorial appearing in October QST.

"Simply stated, this new rule is intolerable, and we do not accept it," Sumner wrote. "It is contrary to the FCC's obligations under the international Radio Regulations as well as the Communications Act, to protect radiocommunication services from harmful interference."

The FCC "has no authority to define away these obligations," Sumner stressed in his editorial. "Harmful interference is harmful interference."

The MO&O also turned down a League request that the Commission reconsider tightening the 40 dB per decade extrapolation factor employed for taking emission measurements. The League argued that the 40 dB per decade extrapolation factor, which has been in Part 15 for some time, may apply to single-source emissions, but it underestimates actual field strength from power lines.

Supported by Aeronautical Radio Inc (ARINC), the ARRL had wanted the FCC to apply a 20 dB per decade extrapolation factor to measurements taken at 30 MHz and lower. The Order also turned down requests by licensed users, including Amateur Radio operators, to exclude the use certain frequencies for BPL operations.

The League is weighing the possibility of a judicial appeal of the FCC's action to adopt the MO&O.

The Commission denied a BPL industry request to extend the effective date to meet equipment certification requirements, but it did give BPL systems another year to continue installing or replacing equipment that otherwise meets the Part 15 rules in present coverage areas.

The MO&O also denied the BPL industry's request to drop the 30-day advance notification requirement for the public BPL database. The advance notification rule is aimed at alerting licensed spectrum to new BPL deployments in their areas before operations begin.

Source: The American Radio Relay League

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