Club commissions for membership renewals are back! Responding to the wishes of many ARRL-affiliated clubs, the League has reinstated the Club Commission Membership Recruitment Program, which benefits affiliated clubs by helping them to bolster the bottom line. For the past couple of years, ARRL-Affiliated clubs have earned $15 commissions for each new or lapsed (over two years) membership they submit. Effective immediately, affiliated clubs now will also earn $2 for each ARRL membership renewal they send in. This program applies to regular and senior membership dues. (Commissions
do not apply to family or blind memberships, and this program may not be combined with any other special offer or discount program.) The program is just one of the many benefits of ARRL club affiliation. For full details, see the ARRL Club Commission Membership Recruitment Program Web page:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/forms/club-commission-program.html
The ARRL has expressed its disappointment with the Bush administration's failure "to prevent radio spectrum pollution by BPL systems." In a November 1 letter to Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans copied to
President George W. Bush, ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, recalled Evans' assurances on the administration's behalf earlier this year "that we are responsible and sensitive to valuable incumbent [radiocommunication] systems." Haynie told Evans the FCC's BPL Report and
Order (R&O) in ET Docket 04-37 – adopted October 14 and released two weeks later – suggests otherwise.
"Despite excellent work conducted by the technical staff of your National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to document the extensive harmful interference that will occur if BPL systems are deployed
at the radiated emission limits presently permitted by the FCC rules," Haynie said, "it appears that the NTIA concurred in the FCC's decision not to tighten those limits."
The FCC maintains that BPL emissions are localized and at low enough levels to preclude harmful interference in the first place, and it has left the door open to possibly upping the limit in the future.
Haynie pointed out that both international treaty and US law entitle licensed radiocommunication services to protection from harmful interference that unlicensed systems like BPL might generate. "Despite this," he continued, "the FCC has shifted the burden for initiating
interference mitigation from the BPL system operator to the radio licensee." The NTIA's September 13 submission to the FCC shows that at FCC Part 15 limits, the probability of harmful interference is essentially 100
percent within 200 to 400 meters (approximately 660 to 1300 feet) of a power line carrying BPL signals – depending on the operating frequency.
"Amateur Radio stations are typically located in residential areas, nearly always well within such distances," Haynie noted. "The FCC's Report and Order provides no assurance that when interference occurs – as it
unquestionably will – it will be promptly eliminated."
As part of the Commerce Department, the NTIA not only administers radio spectrum allocated to federal government users but advises the White House on telecommunications policy. On June 24, President Bush extolled BPL during a speech on technological innovation even while acknowledging interference concerns.
Haynie said the League will continue efforts to improve the R&O. Calling the HF spectrum "a unique and priceless resource," the ARRL president expressed regret that the administration "is willing to squander such a
unique natural resource in order to provide a short-range broadband connection that can easily be provided by several other non-polluting means."
ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, echoed Haynie's concerns. The FCC R&O, he said, "shifts the burden to licensed operators to react to interference rather than adopting rules to prevent interference from occurring." The R&O advises locating "sensitive receiver antennas" as far as practically possible from power lines. Additionally, the FCC admonished ARRL that in cases where its members experience RF noise, "such noise can often be avoided by carefully locating their antennas."
Reacted Sumner: "If a BPL system operator wants to meet its obligation by picking up all of the costs of relocating a licensee's antenna, it's free to make the offer."
If interference occurs, the new Part 15 rules will require BPL system operators to employ "interference avoidance techniques" such as "frequency band selection, notching, or judicious device placement." Notches would have to be at least 20 dB – slightly more than 3 S units – below applicable Part 15 limits on HF and at least 10 dB below Part 15 limits on VHF – not much protection for weaker signals common in HF work.
"We might be more optimistic if there had, to date, been a single instance when the FCC had ordered a BPL system to terminate operation for causing harmful interference," Sumner said. "The Commission continues to be in
denial, despite hundreds of pages of documentation of ongoing interference."
Sumner said the ARRL was gratified that the FCC R&O recognized that BPL devices have significantly greater interference potential than other Part 15 devices and that the Commission will require certification of BPL systems rather than the less-stringent verification. Additionally, Sumner said, the League was pleased that the FCC-mandated public BPL system database will require systems to be listed several weeks ahead of actual
implementation so that amateurs and others have advance notice.
ARRL officials continue to mull possible formal responses to the R&O. The ARRL Executive Committee already has okayed the filing of a Petition for Reconsideration. It further authorized ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, to "prepare to pursue other available remedies as to procedural and substantive defects" in the BPL proceeding.
For more information on BPL, visit the Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio Web page: http://www.arrl.org/bpl.
