What
is BPL / Powerline Communication all about?
Powerline Communication -
or BPL, PLC or PLT as it is called for short - is nothing else but
the use of the local powerline infrastructure for data transfer, e.g.
a fast internet access primarily.
While there is nothing
wrong with trying to get a fast and cheap access to the internet -
even without having to worry about where to put all the new cables as
one uses the ones already at hand, e.g. the powerlines - these
proposed fast BPL/PLC/PLT systems have quite horrible side effects on
other communications, primarily those using the radio frequencies in
the AM broadcast bands as well as on the HF short wave bands.
These radio spectrum
allocations are the only ones that do permit international as well as
local communications by radio without having to worry about being
beyond the line of sight as well as not having to worry about a
certain satellite or radio relay station to be available.
These so called HF bands are of great
value for governmental, militray, emergency as well as commercial
communications by radio, least to mention private and amateur radio
usage. In case of an emergency – be it a natural disaster or a
terrorist attack – BPL/PLC/PLT use of this RF spectrum will
well be able to render it non-usable, thus stripping the public off
what uses to be the only resource available for relief communications
in many instances then..
What
is the trouble with fast PLC/PLT?
The trouble with BPL/PLC/PLT usage is
that powerlines were not thought of to transfer high speed data in
the first place. Forcing them to do such a high speed data transfer
on these rather bad choice powerlines needs to put the signal on
them. High speed means use of quite a broad spectrum of frequencies
for that purpose. And there you are: Here the very troubles and
problems arise ! As powerlines are not screend to prevent
radiation, they rather happen to do just that - and they are quite
good antennas to transmit all the hash, causing heavy and detrimental
interferences to radio reception on the HF and AM bands. An
inescapable result of BPL/PLC/PLT!
Can
HF radio services and PLC/PLT coexist?
Whatever you are being told by those
who would like to put PLC/PLT on your powerlines: The basic and true
answer to that question is: NO !!!
Just at about the year's changing from
2004 to 2005, the Austrian telecommunications agency issued a binding
order against BPL/PLC/PLT provider Linz AG, telling that company to
either adjust their powerline communications system to no longer
create ANY harmful interferences to legitimate HF band radio users or
to close down altogether! Basic reason in doing so was, that
measurements taken by the authority at the site gave sound proof that
the powerline communication network there was the real and only
source of the harmful interferences reported by local HF radio users.
More detailed information about this is available at
http://www.oevsv.at ,
(infos are in German though, look for the PLC part of their
sub-pages).
How
does that PLC/PLT spoil radio reception?
In Europe there have been
quite a few "test sites" where BPL/PLC/PLT has been made
available.
Radio amateurs and
broadcast listeners investigated the effects of BPL/PLC/PLT on their
radios and were alarmed in many ways. Even the promise from
BPL/PLC/PLT vendors and companies that there would be no such effects
were well off the center of facts - or plainly untrue to put it into
brief words...
GET
AN IDEA WHAT IT IS LIKE TO LIVE IN A BPL/PLC/PLT ENVIRONMENT !
Thanks to the Austrian amateur radio
organization OEVSV two video clips
have been made available that should make you know all about the
dirty hash effects of PLT/PLC spoiling the environment:
BPL/PLC/PLT
Video Clip No. 1:
This
video clip shows the bad effects BPL/PLC/PLT testing in the rural
southern Austrian town of Fulpmes did have on HF radio reception. Not
too technical but it does give you a very good general impression.
To
get the clip just click here:
BPL/PLC/PLT clip no. 1
You
will need to have Windows Media Player installed on your PC to view
it.
BPL/PLC/PLT
Video Clip No. 2:
This
video clip is more technically and does show interferences to HF
radio reception as well as measurements of the emitted noise (hash)
spectrums. All those who rather prefer to view the true facts on a
spectrum analyzier besides seeing the environment and hearing the
hash coming out of the speaker of a radio set should download this
one.
To
get the clip just click here:
BPL/PLC/PLT clip no. 2
File
size is about 4.8 MBytes and you will need to have Real Media Player
(preferably versions 6 or up or RealOnePlayer) installed on your PC
to view it.
Both above video clips are copyrighted
by OEVSV and allowance has been
given to this web site's author to present them here. Besides the
conditons set in the video clips themselves any further usage should
be negotiated with OEVSV as the
copyright owner who is the responsible authority for the clips
presented here.
Viewer programs mentioned above are registered
trademarks and subject to the laws applicable.
A very broad platform of BPL/PLC/PLT
related and inflicted problems is also provided by the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL). Readers located in the USA may learn
about where BPL/PLC/PLT is known to be operating in the USA as well
as what FCC and radio users are being up to. While the problem is
slightly different from country to country, BPL/PLC/PLT's main
interference creating potential does not differ significantly.
“Global players” appear to try to swap the whole globe
with that radio communications interfering stuff, just turnig a blind
eye to technical and physical realities – or pretending to be
able to change the basic rules of physics! As there is no explosion
without a big bang coming along with it, there is no BPL/PLC/PLT
system that comes along without a lot of harmful interferences to the
radio services.
The
problem of “Face-Keeping”...
Present roll-out of BPL/PLC/PLT,
mushrooming in many places, has a lot to do with “face-keeping”.
It appears to be that not just a few but quite a bulk of politicians
were “screwed“by BPL/PLC/PLT proponents: Always looking
for an “innovative” label that could be used to sail
under to gain more public interest in the media, these folks took
BPL/PLC/PLT to be the banner suitable. Nobody worried much about the
details that might come along with that “new technology”.
They should have. Now that bad effects of this “new and
innovative technology” have surfaced, and all of a sudden the
“useful” label to sail under has become a burdon, a kind
of a tricky trap. “Face-keeping” therefore is the topic
of the day now, leading to mitigate the problems – and to
telling the public these problems could be solved with BPL/PLC/PLT
still suitable. One wonders what those folks did do when at high
school – at least they appear to have be “off” when
physics was to be learned according to the then time-tables. And now
it seems that the public has to suffer from those folks that try “to
keep the face” after having made a wrong decision...
Anti Powerline Communications Initiative
c/o Martin Hengemühle, DL5QE
Siemensstr. 48 d
D-48153
Münster
GERMANY
email: [email protected]