snorpus
join:2000-10-02
Export, PA
| reply to Rob850
Because...
...they're electric power companies, not telco's or cable companies. Power lines are what they have, and they see them as their entry into the lucrative (?) broadband internet business.
Never mind the negative effects to public safety, aircraft and radio amateurs. Never mind the near certainty their customers will experience frequent service interruptions when licensed transmitters are in operation. (FYI, a 1500 Watt output CW signal into a 10db gain antenna can generate really impressive field strengths.)
BPL opponents haven't needed to astroturf to make their case: the Florida hurricanes of last summer and the recent tsunami in Asia have demonstrated the importance of HF communications, even in this age of cell phones and the Internet.
73
KQ3T
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Kommie
join:2003-05-13
East Haven, CT
| said by snorpus  :BPL opponents haven't needed to astroturf to make their case: the Florida hurricanes of last summer and the recent tsunami in Asia have demonstrated the importance of HF communications, even in this age of cell phones and the Internet. I am going to call BS on that one. Cell phones still worked during the tsunami.When the Florida hurricanes happened how did the old hams help ? Most of the state still had telephone access and the network was so large that carriers still worked for the cell phones.
And just to add to the fact that there are other ways of communication with out using hams, i.e satellite phones(Which are popular in Asia) used by the news media.
Ham is ancient let it go. We need more competition for internet and if BPL is going to give us a big upload speed then I find it more beneficial to all of us. Unlike hams which are used only by a niche certain percent of the population. |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| said by Kommie :said by snorpus :BPL opponents haven't needed to astroturf to make their case: the Florida hurricanes of last summer and the recent tsunami in Asia have demonstrated the importance of HF communications, even in this age of cell phones and the Internet. I am going to call BS on that one. Cell phones still worked during the tsunami.When the Florida hurricanes happened how did the old hams help ? Most of the state still had telephone access and the network was so large that carriers still worked for the cell phones. And just to add to the fact that there are other ways of communication with out using hams, i.e satellite phones(Which are popular in Asia) used by the news media. Ham is ancient let it go. We need more competition for internet and if BPL is going to give us a big upload speed then I find it more beneficial to all of us. Unlike hams which are used only by a niche certain percent of the population. BPL could technically lobby for HF spectrum if it actually used it for providing service. The fact is it doesn't, it merely pollutes it. As such, it needlessly wastes wireless spectrum. We can have broadband and wireless HF spectrum. BPL is not needed to provide more broadband or competition as the barriers to this are political, not technical.
Amateur radio is more than emergency or hobbyist communications. It's also about education and experimentation and is much like a natural resource available to the public. Cell phone networks aren't nearly as resilient as they used to be and satellite communications isn't very cost effective. There's always a need for alternate communications capabilities. HF provides a simple, infrastructureless, cost-effective means of communicating around the world when everything else is congested or has failed. |
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ClydeFiber
@148.126.x.x
| reply to Kommie
I also call BS on the value of the Ham's during the recent hurricane season. Not only did the cell system stay up, but so did the wireline broadband networks. Progress Energy/Telecom, that operates a multi-state multi-thousand route mile fiber-based system DID NOT DROP A SINGLE CIRCUIT DURING THE ENTIRE HURRICANE SEASON, AND LOST ONLY ONE SEGMENT OF FIBER CABLE.
I agree. The "public good" value of the Ham's has come and gone. Let's look at this lobby as what it is, a group of strident hobbyists with a lot of time on their hands, and whose time has come an gone. |
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rf_engineer
join:2003-08-04
USA
| said by ClydeFiber:
I also call BS on the value of the Ham's during the recent hurricane season. Not only did the cell system stay up, but so did the wireline broadband networks. Progress Energy/Telecom, that operates a multi-state multi-thousand route mile fiber-based system DID NOT DROP A SINGLE CIRCUIT DURING THE ENTIRE HURRICANE SEASON, AND LOST ONLY ONE SEGMENT OF FIBER CABLE.
I agree. The "public good" value of the Ham's has come and gone. Let's look at this lobby as what it is, a group of strident hobbyists with a lot of time on their hands, and whose time has come an gone.
( Note that Progress Energy ran a test BPL site and deactivated it while it had active interference complaints. )
The "public good" of ham radio continues today, you just fail to see it or chose to ignore it. Regardless of your perception of ham radio's value during the hurricane or any event, it makes no sense for BPL to wreck 30 Mhz of prime wireless space, especially when there are hundreds of Mhz of spectrum available for unlicensed broadband use at much high power levels. Let's look at BPL for what it is, a bad solution attempting to carry broadband data on a medium never suited for broadband, pushed by hype and the fallacy of rural coverage and cheaper service. |
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