ARRLWeb: ARRL Calls on FCC to Shut Down Virginia BPL System

ARRLWeb: ARRL Calls on FCC to Shut Down Virginia BPL System

"ARRL Calls on FCC to Shut Down Virginia BPL System
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 13, 2005

--In support of Amateur Radio complaints of interference, the ARRL today formally asked the FCC to instruct the City of Manassas, Virginia, to shut down its broadband over power line (BPL) system. Communication Technologies (COMTek) operates the BPL system over the municipally owned electric power grid. The League says the facility has been the target of unresolved interference complaints dating back at least to early 2004, none of which has resulted 'in any action or even interest' on the part of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) staff. In the meantime, the ARRL goes on to say, interference to local Amateur Radio stations continues.

'The Manassas system currently causes harmful interference, and it is not compliant with applicable FCC Part 15 regulations, including Section 15.5,' the ARRL said in a 16-page filing to the OET and the FCC's Enforcement Bureau. 'Whatever actions either Manassas Power or Communication Technologies Inc might have taken to relieve the problem have not been successful, and it persists to the present time. This is precisely the situation in which the system must be shut down, pending successful resolution of the severe interference.' "


73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.