Greetings everyone! Long time no update.
Again, your name is in the BCC field for your protection. If you want to be removed from this, please reply. If you have any other amateurs you believe would like to be part of this, reply and let me know. Thanks!

News from the Avista Front - No news about specifics. Here is a few facts:
1. They have selected a vendor.
2. They are still in contract negotiations with the vendor, hence the
3. The location for the BPL Pilot deployment will be in Northern Idaho.

They are not being more specific than that I know I'm behind in bringing this news to you - late April I attended a meeting in Moscow, ID with Brent - the BPL Pilot committee member and ham that spoke to the Spokane group late last year. Brent had a great PowerPoint slide show that gave us more information regarding the BPL technology, hurdles yet to overcome and a basic understanding of the situation regarding the contract and vendor having been chosen. There was a decent attendance, and it sounded like people were very encouraged by Brent's talk. There were even honest offers to assist Brent in getting his mobile rig set up in his vehicle again - he had taken the old one out, got a new vehicle and hasn't installed it back. We told him to just leave the keys and we'd get him set up. He may take us up on it, but laughed about it with us nonetheless.
Brent is really looking to make sure that there is complete adherence to the FCC limitations and measurements.
When visiting the other sites where BPL was 'successfully deployed' he asked them for their procedure for establishing baseline measurements, installation and post installation measurements. They admitted to him that they didn't have any. Brent is going through the process of setting up a procedure for just that reason; no one else has done it yet. He wants to document baselines, measurements and calculations with specific hardware, (as outlined in the FCC BPL plan) for both before and after BPL deployment in the pilot area.

Other BPL news...When I saw the article on "Hams Encouraged by NEW Motorola BPL Technology" I was immediately concerned that ARRL was jumping on the bandwagon of something as of yet not tested. Please read the links below if you haven't already (ARRL site and Motorola's news release) and see what Ed Hare-W1RFI had to say about it. Please reply to me and ask for clarification on any of these points.

Todd Cady - K7PKT
[email protected]
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-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Cady [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tue 5/24/2005 12:17 AM
On the ARRL site if you haven't had the chance to see it...

Hams Encouraged by NEW Motorola BPL Technology
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/05/23/1/?nc=1

And the link in the text to the Motorola news release...
http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detailpf/0,,5519_5509_23,00.html


I'm really a skeptic. How much testing has been done? Ed?
Compare this to Main.net, is it really any better? The ARRL seems to be jumping on the Motorola bandwagon pretty quickly.
Anyone on this reflector living in upstate South Carolina? That looks to be the location for the deployment.
If this is for real, I would love the opportunity to get Avista to take a look at it. Who knows, with all the open communication between the amateurs and the utility, they'll probably listen to a suggestion of better hardware.

T.

This from Ed Hare - W1RFI :

This has not been tested yet, although Motorola is working with hams in SC as we speak I have no reports back yet. I will be adding a number of hams to the reflector when I get back to the office.
ARRL's "encouragement" is based on the design.

o They use wireless for the backbone, so any HF emissions are only from house and LV wiring to the transformer
o They use HomePlug V1.0 modems in the houses. These have 30 dB notches in the ham bands. They are also quiet except when in acutal use
o They have added analog filters to those modems, deepening the notches to a level not expected to cause interference to fixed or mobile stations
o They can go wireless all the way if needed to correct a particularly difficult interference problem o They worked closely with ARRL since last fall, answering all questions and really giving me a confident feeling that they are on the level and can meet their EMC goals when widely deployed
Had ARRL not been "encouraged" by all that, our credibility would be in the dumps.

73,
Ed, W1RFI/6
****end of Ed's response ******