Subject: [NEXTEL-1] League Asks FCC to Clarify Response to BPL Complaint

From: Alan Dixon <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 13:57:48 -0400

--------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: "ARRL Letter"
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 17:29:36 -0400
Subject: [League Asks FCC to Clarify Response to BPL Complaint]

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 23, No. 30
July 30, 2004
***************

* +League Asks FCC to Clarify Response to BPL Complaint

========================================
==>ARRL SEEKS CLARIFICATION OF FCC RESPONSE 
       TO BPL INTERFERENCE COMPLAINT

The ARRL wants the FCC to further explain its recent response to a 
North Carolina amateur's complaint of BPL interference. FCC Office 
of Engineering and Technology (OET) Deputy Chief Bruce A. Franca 
replied July 22 to an April 27 BPL interference complaint from Thomas 
A. Brown, N4TAB, of Wake Forest. Brown [an engineer with 
considerable RF experience] had complained of BPL interference to 
his amateur HF mobile station emanating from a Progress Energy 
Corp (PEC) BPL field trial in the Raleigh area. In his letter, copied 
to ARRL, Franca said an on-site investigation had concluded that 
PEC's BPL trial "is in compliance" with FCC rules and that the 
company's ham band notching efforts "are effective" to avoid the 
potential for harmful interference. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, 
however, cited evidence to the contrary.

"It is not at all clear that the tests and measurements taken by the FCC.

. . established the absence of harmful interference to licensed
stations," 
Sumner responded July 22. He said the League would like the OET 
to make its test report available to the general public or at least to
the 
League for technical review and comment. The ARRL also wants to 
know what steps PEC took between April 27 and June 28--when 
the FCC began its testing--to address interference complaints from 
Brown and several other radio amateurs.

The FCC defines as "harmful" any interference that "seriously degrades, 
obstructs or repeatedly interrupts a radiocommunication service 
operating in accordance with the Radio Regulations."

According to Franca, FCC personnel "undertook extensive testing and 
measurements" of the PEC BPL system between June 28 and July 2. 
THE COMPLAINANT--BROWN--SAYS THE FCC DELEGATION 
NEVER CONTACTED HIM while it was in North Carolina. Franca 
says FCC measurements indicated notch depths averaging 24 dB below 
Part 15 emission limits, which he characterized as "sufficient to
eliminate 
any signals that would be deemed capable of causing harmful interference,

including interference to amateur operations."  [Emphasis added]

Franca maintained that "in no instances" were signal levels high enough
to 
"cause serious degradation, obstruction, or repeated interruption" of 
amateur mobile or fixed communications. He conceded, however, that 
notching on 10 meters was somewhat less effective at the low end of the 
band and said the FCC would instruct PEC and its partner, Amperion, 
to widen its notch there.

Sumner noted that the Part 15 device operators "must eliminate all
harmful 
interference, and therefore in some cases must achieve more--in certain 
cases, considerably more--than a 24 dB reduction in order to be in 
compliance." He also cited recent reports from amateurs in the area 
indicating that strong BPL interference continues in parts of the PEC 
trial zone.

Sumner told Franca that amateurs in the Raleigh area on July 17 and again

July 22 monitored a BPL signal "at full strength and causing harmful 
interference" from 14.290 to 14.350 MHz. "Harmful interference" also was 
reported in the first 100 kHz of 15 meters as well as on the WWV/WWVH 
frequencies of 15.000 and 20.000 MHz and on several international 
broadcasting bands.

"Even in the notched bands," Sumner said, "the interference was still 
evident on ordinary amateur equipment." He said it's clear to ARRL that 
the system's Holland Church Road site--where the most recent amateur 
measurements were taken--is in violation of Part 15.

For his part, Brown--an engineer with considerable RF experience--
said he was glad the FCC finally took some action but found some 
of Franca's assertions "very troubling." He told ARRL that his 14-page 
complaint cited interference "sufficient to mask a weak signal," although

it did not register on his S meter. An active Amateur Radio Emergency 
Service District Emergency Coordinator, Brown said it's not unusual 
to have to copy similarly weak signals during an HF emergency net.

"I suspect the principal reason for their coming down here was to say 
they've actually done something," Brown commented. He also worried that 
the FCC was attempting to define a standard of "acceptable interference" 
within the framework of what constitutes "harmful interference."

"If it interferes, it interferes," he maintained.

Sumner also requested that the FCC clarify some additional 
aspects of its North Carolina testing and measurement activities.

"Until these points can be clarified," he concluded, "we trust that the 
Commission will not permit its conclusion to be erroneously represented 
as having given the Progress Energy trials a 'clean bill of health.'"

===========================================================
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American Radio Relay League--
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tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259; 
<http://www.arrl.org>. Jim Haynie, W5JBP, President.

Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or 
reproduced in whole or in part in any form without 
additional permission. Credit must be given to The 
ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.

==>Editorial questions or comments: 
Rick Lindquist, N1RL, <[email-masked]>

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