FCC Requires Arizona BPL Field Trial Operator to Work with Amateur Club:

The FCC has required Electric Broadband LLC (EB), which is running a BPL field trial in Cottonwood, Arizona, to maintain contact with a local Amateur Radio club. The Commission granted EB a Part 5 Experimental license WD2XMB for the company's BPL pilot on November 19, although the ARRL earlier this year asked the Commission to withdraw its authorization for the operation. Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association (VVARA) http://www.vvara.org/ BPL Committee Chair Robert Shipton, K8EQC, believes it might be the first time the FCC has ever imposed such a requirement.

"Our BPL committee in Cottonwood was surprised to see this stipulation," Shipton told ARRL. "Time will tell if it really matters or not."

Under a "Special Conditions" section in the WD2XMB experimental license, the FCC stipulated that the licensee "must establish and maintain a liaison relationship with the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association." The Commission also required EB to respond to interference complaints "in a timely manner." System operators indicated earlier this fall that they would notch amateur frequencies, including 60 meters. Interference is still being experienced in the 60 meter band, VVARA says.

Shipton said Mountain Telecommunications Inc, which handles system operations, has worked with the VVARA and "expressed sincerity" in resolving interference to any amateur frequencies affected by their equipment. "Although progress with notching has been made, the representative samples in a trial that is statistically too small in geographical area will not demonstrate any significant results," Shipton said. "Our club questions whether a buildout that involves many more HF segments would be able to avoid the use of amateur spectrum."

EB and utility APS have been operating the BPL experiment at two Yavapai County, Arizona, sites since June, and relations with the amateur community have not always been so placid. The first Amateur Radio complaint, filed in June, cited VVARA testing at HF that asserted BPL interference was making attempts at ham radio communication useless. VVARA submitted a lengthy and comprehensive report to the two companies and the FCC in late July detailing interference issues.

In support of the VVARA effort, the ARRL has twice asked the FCC to shut down the Cottonwood BPL field trial for interfering with Amateur Radio communication. The League's own testing of the Cottonwood system this past summer indicated "extremely high" levels of radiated RF energy on amateur HF allocations--well in excess of the FCC Part 15 levels with which EB told the FCC it would comply.

The League's second shutdown request, sent October 11, accused the FCC of doing "absolutely nothing" to enforce its rules or to protect licensed services from interference. The ARRL said the Commission should not reinstate or extend the Special Temporary Authorization, under which the EB system had operated until the STA's expiration in September, and "no experimental authorization should be permitted for this system."

In an accompanying 12-page technical analysis, the ARRL also cast serious doubt on the accuracy--and possibly the integrity--of the BPL system's FCC-required six-month report, filed more than two months late.

The FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, which handles grants applications for STAs and Part 5 Experimental licenses, has yet to respond to the League's assertions and requests regarding operation of the Cottonwood BPL field trial.

Replying to FCC inquiries prompted by Amateur Radio interference complaints, Electric Broadband has claimed to have spent "significant time and effort" looking into interference complaints from hams, running tests and "taking steps to mitigate any possible interference" the system might be causing, and it invited the FCC to visit and see for itself.

For additional information, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio" page on the ARRL Web site http://www.arrl.org/bpl/. To support the League's efforts in this area, visit the ARRL's secure BPL Web site https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/bpl/.

Source:

The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 48 December 10, 2004

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