On Thu, Aug 25, 2005 at 01:57:48PM +0300, Ira Abramov wrote: > in short, FUD. and I still heard no explanation why BPL failed nor why > it kills SW. does it emit electromagnic noise that kills SW > communications?
Google is one of three companies that together invested $100,000,000 in BPL (broadband over power lines). BPL disrupts all communication in HF and low band VHF. This will put an end to international amateur radio, shortwave brodcasts, long range (beyond 5-10 miles) emergency communication, CB's, some cordless phones, low band VHF TV, etc. This is from a company whose stated policy is to "do no evil". Sounds pretty evil to me. While I'm sure their intention was good, Google simply did not do proper "due dillegance". Every trial of BPL to date has failed miserably due to interference issues (both to and from licensed services), financial impracticality, or both. Most countries that have tried it have decided not to allow it. The other problem is that due to the nature of radio propagation, just because you don't hear anything on a particular frequency does not mean that it is not in use somewhere in the world and your signal will not suddenly appear. For example, a clear frequency in California could be in use by aircraft over the Atlantic and a BPL signal transmitted using an antenna several miles long, such as a power line could prevent them from getting assistance they need when they land. It could quite possibly be the difference between life and death. Or for example, a signal on an unused frequency in the U.S. may be a shortwave broadcast frequency elsewhere in the world. A test engineer at a BPL site using a portable radio would hear nothing, while the BPL signal might prevent someone from hearing the news, or in a totalitarian country the truth. To me, this does not conform to Google's policy of "do no evil". There is a type of amateur radio operators, called QRP'ers, that communicate around the world using less power than BPL uses. They use significantly smaller antennas. Gordon West, WB6NOA, a popular author of amateur radio learning guides and magazine articles once was testing a transmitter using a LIGHT BULB as the antenna. Someone 3,000 miles away replied to him and they had a conversation. Imagine the result if he had had antenna several miles long. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (077)-424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Support the growing boycott of Google by radio users and hobbyists. It's starting to work, Yahoo has surpassed Google. ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
