League Urges New York Members to Protest State Grant to Troublesome BPL Trial
Pole-mounted Ambient BPL equipment in Briarcliff Manor, New York. [Alan Crosswell, N2YGK, Photo] NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 2, 2006--ARRL Directors Frank Fallon, N2FF, of the Hudson Division and Bill Edgar, N3LLR, of the Atlantic Division have called on the League's New York membership to protest a state grant to help fund a problematic BPL pilot project. ARRL learned this week that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has contracted with electric utility Consolidated Edison (ConEd) and BPL manufacturer Ambient to provide up to $200,000 in funding for a BPL pilot in the Westchester County community of Briarcliff Manor. "If you share our dismay that NYSERDA's funds are being used to support a known source of radio spectrum pollution, write to Gov Pataki and NYSERDA President Peter Smith to demand that the State of New York use its influence to ensure that the Briarcliff Manor BPL project is either brought into compliance with the FCC rules immediately or shut down," Fallon and Edgar said in a joint statement to New York ARRL members. The Briarcliff Manor project has been the subject of a string of complaints to the FCC, including several requests from the ARRL--the last filed just last month--to shut down the project until it complies with FCC rules. Fallon and Edgar called on ARRL members in the Empire State to write Gov George E. Pataki, State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224 and Peter R. Smith, President, NYSERDA, 17 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY 12203- 6399. Pataki is a former Amateur Radio licensee, K2ZCZ (since reissued). ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, points out that the League's concerns regarding the public grant have been on record with NYSERDA since June 2004, when Ambient prematurely announced a funding grant. Sumner said John Love, the NYSERDA project manager for the BPL grant, this week confirmed that a contract had been signed. "I shared with him our disappointment at Ambient's involvement, given their miserable track record in Briarcliff Manor," Sumner said. In his conversation with Love, Sumner said he explained that Ambient was violating FCC rules in Briarcliff Manor by exceeding Part 15 emission limits, causing harmful interference in the amateur bands and failing to post required information in the public BPL system database. Love "clearly didn't know much about the interference issue," Sumner said, adding that the official indicated NYSERDA's interest in BPL was as a means to improve the quality of electric power delivery. "However, he said the contract requires the parties to monitor and report on interference and its mitigation," Sumner noted. "I offered ARRL's technical resources to educate him." Long History of Complaints On January 5, citing FCC inaction in response to previous complaints, the ARRL renewed its complaint to the Commission about the Ambient Corporation BPL project in Briarcliff Manor. The BPL system uses power lines owned and operated by ConEd under a Part 5 Experimental FCC authorization. The League requested last month that the FCC instruct the BPL facility's operators to shut it down immediately and not resume operation until it can demonstrate full compliance with all applicable FCC rules. NOTE: The ARRL NYSERDA Correspondence file can be found here. (All files are in PDF format.) A 25-page engineering report that accompanied the League's complaint detailed measurements that ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, made early last December in Briarcliff Manor. "ARRL has repeatedly found in past measurements at the site that the system operates with radiated emission levels strong enough to cause widespread harmful interference to the Amateur Radio Service," the League said in early January. "It has also found on several occasions that parts of the system were operating at levels exceeding the emission limits for BPL systems operating under Part 15 of the Commission's rules." The League's engineering survey indicated that "notching" Ambient previously reported to have done was not in place and that, at several locations, the BPL system "was operating at or near the FCC emission limits in the amateur bands, causing strong interference." League Raises Question of NYSERDA Funding Propriety When Con Ed and Ambient first announced the NYSERDA funding award in June 2004, the grant had not actually been made. The misleading news release--headlined "NYSERDA Awards Ambient and Con Edison Funding for Enhancing PLC Pilot Project"--was never corrected or retracted, however. Acting on the belief that NYSERDA was already providing money for the project, the League wrote NYSERDA in September 2004 and again in March 2005 to document the ongoing interference. Gunnar Walmet, NYSERDA's director of industry research and buildings, responded in March 2005 that the Authority still had not been able to complete the contract. Sumner wrote back to reiterate that the reason for the League's June 2004 letter was "to raise the question of whether a project that was in willful violation of the Communications Act was deserving of public funding." Sumner told Walmet that not only does the original question remain, it's now joined by another: "Whether corporations that make such misrepresentations are qualified to receive public funding." Additional information about BPL and Amateur Radio is on the ARRL Web site. 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