I wrote this up for QRZ.com, based on a Petition filed by the group in Newington on Tuesday.
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518170218Alternative BPL systems pitched in ARRL Petition
WASHINGTON (QRZ.com) -- The Federal Communications Commission should consider newer systems of using the power lines to distribute high speed internet service as alternatives to those that can cause interference to Amateur radio frequencies, according to a petition filed by a group leading the fight against such interference.
The American Radio Relay League, which also filed as the National Association for Amateur Radio, said recent testing at the group's compound in Newington, Connecticut has shown at least two systems "can be operated without substantial risk of interference to Amateur Radio facilities" including tests involving the group's flagship ham radio station W1AW.
The ARRL had announced it had obtained a system from Motorola for such testing by its staff led by the League's interference guru, Ed Hare, W1RFI. A test in Cincinnati proved the cleanliness of a similar system from the company Current Technologies.
The new systems avoid using amateur spectrum and outdoor power lines to convey the digital telemetry to the household users.
The group asks the FCC to ban older BPL systems that DO use amateur spectrum and the early distribution path to deliver internet service.
Based on the evaluations, the group's lawyer, Chris Imlay, W3KD, wrote "it is no longer the case that all BPL systems inherently radiate high levels of RF energy on Amateur allocations on overhead medium voltage power lines."
The League's petition urges the FCC to effectively mandate the use of the newer type of system where and when utility companies decide to implement BPL-type internet service. It proposes changes in measurement standards that would favor the cleaner methods demonstrated by equipment from the companies cited.
Imlay wrote such a mandate is "a reasonable means of accomodating BPL in a responsible manner, in view of the demonstrated interference potential of the early BPL system architecture, and the relative absence of such potential from certain newer BPL technologies."
The Petition highlights an already documented history of unresolved interference problems in complaints to utility companies and the FCC. The document also returns to several points of opposition on technical grounds that the FCC had earlier downplayed, when Commissioners voted to move ahead with BPL regulations allowing the earlier, dirtier technology.
The League's filing can be found as a Petition for Issuance of Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making and for Amendment of Regulations received by the FCC in Washington Oct. 18, 2005, and can be found with an internet search on the agency's Electronic Comment Filing System.
