Broadband over Powerlines - A Radio Amateur's Perspective

[maciejwrotek]

Could you install a device in ur power socket that generates impulses that disturb operation of this internet ?? Perhaps they would be annoyed and dismantled it.

[maciejwrotek]

@maciejwrotek or if they use wifi, point high gain directional antenna in their antennas and generate blocking signal

[VK7TW]

We undertook testing of the ingress of an amateur radio signal into this system in one of the suburbs that was undertaking the trial. The report can be found at the reast.asn.au website under teh BPL watch page and it's called the RF Susceptibility Tests.

[VK7TW]

@maciejwrotek

You could introduce a "blocking" signal however you would have to be careful not to create more interference.

[maciejwrotek]

@VK7TW More interference ? That is the point to create more interference.. To stop this ridiculous high voltage line internet.

[SamInTexas]

The solution is to abandon BPL technology and decommission all BPL systems worldwide. Change to fiber optic, 3G or 4G technology.

[Philovideo]

Wow, That BPL RFI is bad! Until the interference issue is resolved, (If at all possible.) this technology should not be deployed. That kind of RFI cannot be tolerated. At least now I know what BPL RFI sounds like on HF! Thanks for posting this video.

73, Bill, KI7F

[sandaura]

Please google SANDAURA YOUTUBES. YOU WILL HEAR THE MICROWAVE NOISE POLLUTION BROADCASTING IN OUR COMMUNITY. THESE ARE PURE TONES, WHICH ARE A HEALTH HAZARD. WHETHER YOU CAN HEAR THEM OR NOT; THEY ARE IN OUR AIR CONSTANTLY PULSING.

[G1HJW]

Having first hand experience of the effect of these devices on Short Wave, AirBand & Broadband use.

I can say they do block out Shortwave radio Broadcast or Ham Radio, they also make weak Am Airband radio hard to hear & slow down the broadband internet. Having had OFCOM Govement body remove one local to me & seeing the change, I wonder why there not already banned & wonder will it take a Air to Air crash because a pilot or control not hearing traffic.

[A61RJ]

Nice Work 73s

[radioam232]

Good video. It causes an extreme broadband radio pollution, clearly visible and audible. Bad idea, broadband over power lines, also for consumer electronics.

[JamesJB32]

I hope this doesn't come to Allentown,PA,that would suck :( If it is in any part of Allentown so far it hasn't bothered me.

Curious,some of these ham radios i see go from $600 - $12,000,does the filters on the big gun radios help at all? If not id be a little ticked off if i owned a $12,000 radio :( .

Im a new ham just passed my Technician Class License on 3/6/09 and got my callsign on 3/12/09. :) i will be studying for my General Class License soon.

[rdt1970]

well thats what you get for gov regulation fuck em i say. gov wants you to take the test so gather more info on people who can use transmitters etc. new they will want you to take a test to operate the dam tv

[Physhi]

They regulate shit that's hard to control. TV -> very easy to control since it's all transmissions are centralized. Same with AM/FM radio receivers. Same with newspapers delivered to your front door. And we already have politicians moving to destroy the internet. I do not believe TV boxes will be regulated as they are a centralized medium which is very powerful for propaganda.

[KC0TLV]

RTD - no, you have to take the test to prove that you are competent to operate a radio professionally - not just hack at it like CB operators.  Why don't you learn what amateur radio is about before you spout off...

[washboardboy]

Point made. Thank you for sharing. Knowledge is power. Your efforts are appreciated by one person for whatever that is worth. I will spread the knowledge, in Canada.

[zoolkhan]

i wish the relevant people would see this vido as it illustrate nicely our worries.

vy 73 oh8xat

[mikesndbs]

good video mate! well done.

Check my channel to see what's happening here in the UK

[Icycoldcoke]

very im have only ever a cb user but have a underling but have always been of getting my full call but if this comes in i dont think i would worry about getting my full call Cheers n 73's 43jb01 Adam

[rasputinsdog]

Fear not, boys. Even the BPL industry has figured out BPL isn't cost effective. Money talks, b.s. walks. Given the availability of cable, DSL, and city-wide wifi Internet services, BPL will go the way of the Edsel.

[sophiegromit]

BPL was a bad idea from the start! Governments should not allow deployment of BPL, given the huge interference issues.

[Amishman35]

Another thing that obliterates shortwave, but to a lesser extent is cable modems, they load the whole house from 1800 kHz to 20 Mhz with what sounds like AC mains hum, I have to go outside with a Digital Voice Recorder to receive SSTV pictures. But your situation is MUCH worse. You can't even hear the alternator of the automobile, and you're right on top of it (car electronic QRM is REALLY LOUD, and BPL PLC in a far off house knocks it off the air). Ethernet cables kill shortwave too.

[VK7TW]

Thanks for your comments. One aspect that really concerns me about BPL is its ability to blanket whole suburbs with broadband noise. I purposely left the alternator noise in the video. Originally I thought about trying to get rid of the alternator noise but realised it was a good reference.

Fortunately, we no longer have the BPL problem as the power company made a decision in November 2007 to stop the trial and the BPL kit was removed from poles around Hobart in January 2008.

[nr4dw]

very well put!!! BPL Hopefully will not be the next big thing with the internet,

In an emergency, hang it up, this BPL crap will not enable ham radio operators to help get communications through when desperatly needed!!

[tarmotanilsoo]

Interesting video... Actually, Estonia first also thought about doing Broadband over Powerlines as well, but our energy company decided to go on with wireless CDMA connections instead.

[randy946]

Very informative and nicely done. Thank you!

[bearprovedyouwrong]

Long Live 80 meters!

[bearprovedyouwrong]

sulution run high power amplifiers in the middle of the HF band with a high power dirty unfiltered amp. Bye them linear amps peeps and Block BPLs

[KC0TCH]

OK lets suppose BPL goes through ...your sitting pretty with your BPL... WHAM!!! a anatural disaster hits and your home is wiped off the face of the earth... Sorry we hams cant help now because our tickets were cancelled .

[mykol13v]

Excellent!

[rudyiking]

Nicely done!!!

73's Rudy King KC0GQT

[floydiangreen]

if bpl is unlicenced by the acma how can you be responisible for harmfull interference?

time to up grade the linear amp and drop carriers!!

[rugged74]

You fix this problem with a well-placed .308 round. Oh I forgot, Australia confiscated your guns :-(

May the one-world-government pigs have more difficulty in disarming America!

[Mindraker1]

What type of solution do you propose to this problem? How do you cost-effectively solve this problem?

[VK7TW]

Ideally switch it off. Realistically a range of measures can be employed to reduce the emission level. Start with both hardware and software notching on backhaul and consumer bandwidth to try and address emission and ingres issues. Secondly employ BPL network management software that dynamically minimises power levels for bandwidth delivery across the network.

[bearprovedyouwrong]

The main solution would lie on RFI suppression nodes and require internet service providers that use BPL to have to install these suppression kits along the powerlines.

[bearprovedyouwrong]

Another sulution to this would be to limit use of BPL for underground powerlines only the earth would effectivly suppress all RFI emissions.

[lustrup]

Nice info....we have the same problems in Norway too....keep up the good work...

73's LA3EQ

[VK4ZMM]

Well done VK7TW we need to check out any other tests on the mainland as well.

73

VK4ZMM

[patchcords]

I HATE BPL !!!

[semnopithecus2]

welcome to the digital age !!!

[rainbowbritekicksazz]

Digital SUCKS! When the signal is weak its GONE

Digital is either on or OFF ,most of the time its OFF!I hate it !

[Kcy101]

Two ways to fix this.. A) Call the FCC B) Take out the wires....he he he...

( I have no call sign yet )

[ender06026]

A very nice display and commentary about this trashy technology. From what I have observed, BPL simply is not able to effectively compete with DSL, cable, and wireless residential offerings. Hopefully this power company dream (and our nightmare) will simply fade away as FIOS becomes a fact of life in most areas during the next 10 years.

73,

Rob WB1AEX

[VK7TW]

Totally agree with your comments Rob.

Interestingly, we have a fibre to the home trial happening here currently and it is the way of the future.

73, Justin, VK7TW

[moregon]

VK7TW thank you for posting this video. This video demo far exceeds what the written word about BPL has conveyed. 73's NW9T

[vk2twm]

GOD HELP US ALL !!!!!

[vocestv]

Ok. Thanks. Did you had problems to make communications with others? Because the power of BPL is very low compared with the power of the radio transceiver. Did your radio communications were affected? or you just listen noise, as all the power lines issue?

Thanks a lot.

[VK7TW]

Within the BPL trial areas on the frequencies affected you cannot hear any other signals other than BPL. S9+ or >34dBuV signals levels from BPL are excessive signal levels. I could not operate within the trial area.

[vocestv]

Can you give us detailed information on which BPL system is used there?. When the video was taken?.

Because newer BPL technologies had overcome the interference problem.

[VK7TW]

Mitsubishi product using DS2 Chipset with software notches being employed.

[wa1ar]

You can't fix this with technology. If you transmit these frequencies on long wires you will hear it everwhere. It is a fact of life.

[know001]

Also Im not sure of the wireless they're using ofr backhaul, but if I was to say point my AP with a dirty great directional antenna at it, theirs might not work so well.

Again not a product consumers are going to flock to.

[scott4957]

This is illegal, that is a fact. Thank you so much for making these videos I hope they raise more awareness to the problems of BPL. Amateur operators do not want to ban BPL, we would just like the companies to be held to the same standards as the rest of the spectrum users. If this were a misfit jamming police radios it would have been fixed a long time ago, but a jammer does not potentially pay the FCC millions of dollars either.

[pauloz386]

I suppose if there was massive infrastructure devastation that required HF emergency communication , BPL and the fragile infrastructure, would be down anyway, thus clean EMF spectrum. I however like the independence of radio too, as more likely than not if a national security issue arise, the net would be switched off. The political system we live with, only does enough to be voted in again, major infrastructure projects are a thing of the past.

[Blaze1024]

It never fails to amazes me how today's entitlement minded people are so willing to obliterate a limited natural resource just so they can avoid doing something right. BPL is nothing more then an interim solution. BPL in the end is going to cost more and be more destructive then actually doing it right by installing something like a dedicated fiber optic or WIFI network. I guess being able to download porn right now is more important then investing in proper solution

[pauloz386]

I suppose the popularity of the internet which you are using to voice your views on bpl,is really the issue.If Amateur Radio had the numbers, you would voice your opinion via radio, obviously it doesn't. But I do still feel BPL is a poor method of data transfer, however as powerlines are already there it's cost is very low compared to fiber optics or copper wire.

[Blaze1024]

Actual the cost is much higher! The HF spectrum is a limited international natural resource. It's governed by the ITU. HF has the unique ability to provide world wide point to point communications with no infrastructure. Unlike most modern communications system that depends on massive and fragile infrastructures. An HF transceiver and a simple wire antenna hung from a tree is enough for world wide emergency communications.

[Blaze1024]

It never fails to amazes me how today's entitlement minded adults and children are so willing to obliterate a limited natural resource just so they can avoid spending the money needed to do something right. BPL is nothing more then an interim solution. BPL in the end is going to cost more and be more destructive then installing something like a dedicated fiber optic or WIFI network. I guess being able to download porn right now is more important then investing in proper solution.

[jashoon]

Thanks for making this video.

I have been following the bpl situation for sometime now and like most hf users are quite concerned about the interferance from bpl.

Hopefully there will be a fix to this problem.

73's from Jason

ZL2FT.