Amateur Radio Marginalized by FCC on BPL Issue

Are YOU a member of the ARRL?
Just curious

73 de KC2KVZ

 

Yes, the one thing that pulls America together.

That pitiful SOB.  The one that pulls our polarized society together.

Probaly not what OBL wants, but that is what he does.

He sure isn't very good at tactics.

Everytime he opens that camel sewer on his face, he unites America.

Go figure.  He must beleive that we think like the sub-human ass that he is.

Osama, we ARE coming for you.  Just a matter of time.

W6NJ

 

Actually, I can envision a scenario where Kerry might actually cause more BPL rather than less.

It's well known about his environmentalist tendencies. I could see a Kerry administration saddling power companies with a huge financial burden due to new environmental controls. Power rates are about as high as they can be right now, so how are the power companies going to still turn a profit?? Lease their lines to BPL providers!!!

 

You think that maybe they ought to have Radio Engineers for the FCC Board ? maybe we can get things done right 4 a change

 

The FCC was well staffed with good engineers once upon a time- but they are mostly gone now.  They had an annoying habit of ruining perfectly good fantasies with tiresome facts . . .  

73 . . . Ron WB5HZE

 

Not just the FCC.

Corporate America.

The "devil in the details" quote is a sure bet for early retirement.

Wonder when Icom will have the tech center in India?

Now we sell out America's technology. Soon it will be too late.

Time to vote next Tuesday. Third world is a reality here soon.

Dumbing down ham radio was the begining of dumbing down the USA.

We will be the third world, if this continues.

W6NJ

 

I guess this finally answers the 'are we a service or a hobby' question, huh...

73 John K7FD

 

"We similarly do not find that Amateur Radio frequencies warrant the
special protection afforded frequencies reserved for international
aeronautical and maritime safety operations," the Commission said. "While
we recognize that amateurs may on occasion assist in providing emergency
communications," the FCC added. It described typical amateur operations as
"routine communications and hobby activities."

Well I guess that lets us know where we stand with the FCC (if we didn't before). Remember its all about the $$$ and ham radio does not bring any $$$ to the FCC table. We can forget about the "good old days" for those of us that live near a major line (me). What's the address of eBay???

 

I am afraid that on the service versus hobby side we were always a hobby. We were perceived to be a hobby of special benefit to the community, a status that is now perceived as untrue from lack of understanding.

Other great hobbies include, search and rescue groups. They can perform great public service in the wilder areas of the country but it is a hobby. That is what the search and rescue people that I knew told me. In the West, they were one of the largest groups to be added to Amateur radio when the no-code tech came through.

They are a hobby for the same reasons we are a hobby. They don't get paid to train, the don't get paid to work, they are mostly responsible for the cost of their own equipment. Finally and most important they are not required to serve when the need arises. The are quite willing but have no reason to do so other than wanting to.

Amateur radio operators don't have to serve in emergencies, some would say we only get in the way anyway. We don't get paid. We mostly pay for our own equipment. We don't get paid to train. We serve because we want to.

Yes, we and many other valuable community services are hobbies.

Bicycle riding is a hobby and the governments will go to great lengths to produce special trails and roads for bycyclists, but they won't even protect Amateur frequencies.

The next really big charitable event communications provision should be ignored in a BPL out. We can't ignore the real stuff - fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other things that threaten life and limb. Walkathons, bikathons, and other hobby events are fair targets.

If our spectrum, all of it, does not rate protection; why should we go out of our way to support some other hobby.

This idea would also provide a good test of our real value, if the community were to function well without our aid, we would then know that our hobby meant as much to the community as needlepoint.

 

BPL is DOA, folks, in spite of what our overpaid government hacks would have us believe.  

As the old saying goes, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but, in the end, you still have a pig”.  And, BPL is nothing more than Mr. Powell’s (and “Dubya’s) dressed up pig.  

Besides, all the notching and other measures BPL providers are going to have to install on their systems if they want to go this route, it seems to me the power companies are going to have to FIRST figure out how to silence all their own QRM from power line noise (loose clevis joints and hardware) that are endemic to most power grids in the USA.

For example, right now, my own “noise floor” here (thanks to my friendly power company) is sometimes well over S-9+ of pure, unadulterated, broadband noise from HF right through VHF.  Would someone please explain to me how a workable BPL signal is going to get through THAT?

Next, and as others have already pointed out, once someone figures out how to tap into BPL Internet services “for free” and, thereby gains “unauthorized” access to all that sensitive information flowing over it, it will be all over, folks.  Would YOU pay real money for such a service?

As far as politics is concerned, and as I have said before, we don’t get the government we deserve, we get the government we allow.  For too many years, the “Republicrats” have passed themselves off as the “only” choices, and, like sheep, we’ve blindly followed.  

While it’s always nice to vote for a “winner”, I think we’ve sold ourselves down the river as a result.  The unadulterated arrogance of Powell Jr. and his dimwit lawyer hacks at the FCC on this BPL issue should be a wakeup call to us all.  However, a simple change of administrations from Republican to Democrat isn’t going to give us back the many freedoms we’ve lost as a result of our (so-called) “two party” system.

Folks, there ARE alternatives to JFK and GWB for those who want to do their homework.  We don’t need to settle for “the lesser of two evils” this time around, particularly when the Republicans and Democrats are simply two factions of the same country club.

Do your homework and make your vote count!  It’s high time we threw the bastards out….ALL of them!

73,

Keith
KB1SF

 

Wow. Lots of misunderstanding and hyperbole, IMO. Incredible digressions--all irrelevant and wrong--to politics; technical competency of the FCC; etc, again IMO.

The R&O details modifications to Part 15. It adds location and frequency restrictions to assure that services so licensed can continue to enjoy said benefits as described in their definition.

There is nothing in how the amateur radio service is defined--by US law--that requires prescriptive (or proscriptive) restrictions in order for that definition to be maintained with respect to BPL.

Period.

Essentially, there is nothing in the R&O that changes Part 15 with respect to Access BPL and ham radio.

It provides a clear path towards identifying and dealing with harmful interference cases, if they arise.

The FCC, wisely, recognizes that a vast amount of HF ham radio is "routine" and "hobbyist", neither of which constitutes the mission of the amateur radio service.

If you go scouting out BPL, then in the sense that your efforts are neither 'routine' nor 'hobbyist' but more 'activist', you will also not be making a case for the compromise of the mission of the amateur radio service.

For those who seek legal remedies, the only one that appears to me--IMO- is to attempt to change the definition of the amateur radio service. I think, however, the likelihood of this is extraordinarily low.

Work with the Access BPL folks. There is no reason not to.

73,
Chip N1IR

 

In order for BPL to become viable, don't they have to develop a group of consumers that actually use the service? Or is it just going to exist everywhere regardless if there are any BPL customers?

I have yet to see a commercial on TV advertising BPL service.

All of the information about problem and interference that BPL causes should be given to the competition: Cable and DSL providers... and Satellite Broadband. I see commercials every day about "why cable is better than Dish Network" and "why Direct TV is a better choice than cable TV"... maybe the ticket is to get these internet providers to use that information against the BPL service providers as a means of fighting off competition.

The last thing the Cable and DSL broadband giants want is more competition... and I believe the information we've got on BPL could be useful to them; to prove their internet services a better choice.

I have Starband here.. a broadband satellite internet service because I cannot get DSL or Cable in the boondocks.


Is this even a good idea? or am I smoking crack...?

 

Guess we have figured out that the FCC is a political organization responding to a campaign contribution by now, haven't we? The politican partys have sold everything but our souls for campaign contributions... sigh....

 

This ham brings up a good point. The utilities currently (no pun intended) have power AVAILABLE on their lines. Isn't it probable that BPL could be injected into the lines with or without subscribers, there for the taking when a subscriber requests the service.

Therefore, it is possible to have BPL interference in your neighborhood without any actual subscribers.

K2WH