Katrina and BPL

[k4kyv]

Bill NY9H posted an interesting take on the RFI reflector.  He mentioned, after listening to some of the emergency traffic nets on 40 (I would include 75 and 20 as well), that hams should send e-mails and letters to their congressmen expressing concern for the potential interference that BPL, if widely deployed, would cause to the federal SHARES (whatever that is), MARS & ARES systems operating on hf. 

I listened for a little while last night, and gathered from some of the messages, that amateur HF was about the only link some places had to the outside world.  No operational repeaters, too far away for VHF simplex, all forms of public telecommunications down. Some of the deployed NG units MIGHT have working HF facilities, but how high a priority has HF communications been in the military in recent years?

Maybe even make audio recordings of some of the emergency activity if something that sounds really worthwhile is heard, and send that to the appropriate state and federal legislators so they could hear for themselves what would be obliterated if BPL is  permitted to wipe out the HF spectrum...

Last night I listened to the net on 3872 for a little while, and didn't hear any jamming or deliberate interference or any of the other usual 75m nonsense.  I DID hear someone on AM, about a kc/s down the band from the frequency, tuning up and saying "helloooo", but didn't catch an ID.  Some of the net people in 5-land mentioned hearing this.  They apparently thought it was simply someone tuning up their SSB rig, and made an announcement asking other net participants to please do their tuning up off the net frequency.  Hope nobody noticed what it actually was, so some A-hole can start bitching about "those goddam AM'ers".

We need to be very careful while this situation is going on, and give the emergency people a benefit of a doubt.  No doubt a lot of space cadets and hero wannabe's will try to take advantage of this to feed their egos.  Some of them will undoubtedly get obnoxious. But In the present situation, I couldn't think of a better way to give AM a black eye, than to be accused of willfully or carelessly interfering with any kind of emergency communications in and out of the devastated areas.

[Jim, W5JO]

I didn't hear the particular incident Don, but Idid  hear people who tuneed their transmitters exactly zero beat of the net frequency or near it.  I believe they may be operators who haven't been on in years that are trying to be part of the action.

I have seen this behavior in past emergencies where this type will then check into the net and request obscure information.  Sad deal, but I don't think any AM stations are involved.  You are very correct about operating right now and for the foreseeable future.  If anyone comes along and asks us to move, we should cooperate.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Bill NY9H posted an interesting take on the RFI reflector. He mentioned, after listening to some of the emergency traffic nets on 40 (I would include 75 and 20 as well), that hams should send e-mails and letters to their congressmen expressing concern for the potential interference that BPL, if widely deployed, would cause to the federal SHARES (whatever that is), MARS & ARES systems operating on hf.

We sent in comments over a year ago via the Vermont Office of Emergency Management about the potential crippling effects of BPL on RACES HF emergency comms. Our director of Homeland Security also has oversight of the RACES program and is a ham himself, so he sent email as well as the 'official letterhead' approach, just to be sure. He never mentioned anything about a response, but I'll ask him again next time we catch up. The state Army MARS head (KC1BT) also commented on behalf of the MARS operators here. ARES is pretty much a 3-ring clusterf***, has been as long as I can remember. Oddly, the SEC was found dead in his apartment about a week and a half ago, and had apparently been dead for several weeks.

We need to be very careful while this situation is going on, and give the emergency people a benefit of a doubt. No doubt a lot of space cadets and hero wannabe's will try to take advantage of this to feed their egos. Some of them will undoubtedly get obnoxious. But In the present situation, I couldn't think of a better way to give AM a black eye, than to be accused of willfully or carelessly interfering with any kind of emergency communications in and out of the devastated areas.

Absolutely!

[k4kyv]

ARES is pretty much a 3-ring clusterf***, has been as long as I can remember.