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NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 19, 2005--In a strongly worded letter to the FCC, the League has once again asked the Commission to shut down the Manassas, Virginia, BPL system because it's still causing harmful interference to Amateur Radio and otherwise does not comply with FCC Part 15 rules. Today's letter from ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay was in response to a November 30 letter from Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Joseph Casey, who suggested further cooperation between the complaining radio amateurs and the city-owned BPL system. Imlay said it's no longer productive to hold more meetings and discussions about ongoing interference while "this hopelessly flawed BPL system" is allowed to continue operating.
"These meetings have not produced any solution to the interference problem but have, instead, created the illusion that the problem is being addressed," Imlay wrote. Complaints from Manassas radio amateurs of interference from the BPL system date back to earl 2004. "This system should have been taken off the air long ago, pending reconfiguration or re-engineering of it," he added, "and the only operating that it should be doing is for purposes of interference testing."
Communication Technologies (COMTek) operates the BPL system over the municipally owned electric power grid using Main.net equipment on frequencies between 4 MHz and 30 MHz. The League said the FCC has not discharged its "most fundamental obligation" to prevent or resolve interference issues involving the Manassas system, which, the League charged, only remains operating "because the Commission, for political reasons, has consistently refused to enforce its rules with respect to BPL,"
Continuing a "dialogue" with the victims of the BPL interference is "an avoidance tactic" that neither the League nor its members in Manassas will tolerate. "The only solution at this late date is to order that the Manassas system, which is an unlicensed system of RF devices permitted to operate only on a non-interference basis, cease operation, save for interference testing." Imlay declared.
The Part 15 BPL rules the FCC adopted in October 2004 require a BPL operator informed of harmful interference to "investigate the reported interference and resolve confirmed harmful interference . . . within a reasonable period," Imlay pointed out. "No reasoned examination of this case could produce a finding that this rule has been complied with in Manassas," he added.
Imlay says that at a December 13 meeting, COMTek and the City of Manassas "openly acknowledged the interference to amateur stations" but claimed that until a month or so earlier, they had been unable to "notch" amateur allocations because they didn't yet have the equipment to do so.
"This explains why, after COMTek and Manassas claimed earlier that they had notched certain amateur bands the complaining amateurs continued to notice unabated interference when they would operate mobile within the area," the League asserted. "By the admission of COMTek, the capability of reducing interference in this system does not exist."
Previous meetings between the complaining radio amateurs and the BPL operator "produced no measurable results," Imlay contended, referring to the response of Donald Blasdell, W4HJL, to Casey on December 9. At one point in the system, interference was reported at S9 plus 40 dB on typical ham gear. "That level precludes virtually all Amateur Radio communications," he asserted.
Imlay further took the opportunity to again point out that the Manassas BPL system is out of compliance with §15.615(a) because its operator failed to provide full information to the public BPL database by the November 19 deadline.
"ARRL again requests that the BPL facility at Manassas, Virginia, be instructed to shut down immediately," the League's letter concluded, "and that it not resume operation unless the entire facility is shown to be in full compliance with Commission rules regarding radiated emissions; with the non-interference requirement of Section 15.5 of the Commission's rules; and not in any case until thirty days subsequent to full compliance with Section 15.615(a) of the rules."
The new BPL "Interference Resolution Web Site" provided by the United Power Line Council (UPLC) and the United Telecom Council (UTC) opened in mid-October.
Field tests conducted by Manassas radio amateurs established that the city's BPL system "was an interference generator at distances of hundreds of feet from the modems on overhead power lines," the ARRL told the FCC October 13. "It was also, incidentally, determined that the system was susceptible to interference from nearby radio transmitters operating between 4 and 20 MHz," the League added.
Manassas formally inaugurated its citywide deployment of the high-speed Internet BPL system in early October, touting it as "the first large-scale commercial BPL deployment in North America." The city receives a portion of BPL subscriber revenues to offset its costs of installing and maintaining the system.
Additional information about BPL and Amateur Radio is on the ARRL Web site. To support the League's efforts in this area, visit the ARRL's secure BPL Fund Web site.
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