The following story ran in the Harrisburg, PA, newspaper. As you may know, Harrisburg is the state capital, and so we can hope that state legislators may see this article. 73 - Kay N3KN =============================== Net connector worries Ham radio operators Ham radio operators fear Net interference Hams: Powerlined Net to hurt 2-way radio http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/10868592201353... Thursday, June 10, 2004 BY TOM BOWMAN Of The Patriot-News For two years in the 1960s, Bob Marzari used his amateur radio station in Swatara Twp. to enable workers at the South Pole to talk with their families back home. He ran more than 1,000 phone patches using his ham radio to connect people in Antarctica to his station, then by telephone to their loved ones in the United States. But his hobby of 40 years is threatened by the Internet. If the Federal Communications Commission approves a method of transmitting the Internet that would use power lines, Marzari would not be able to hear the voices coming from Antarctica despite the 93-foot antenna tower in his back yard. Under consideration is broadband over power line, or BPL. It has attracted national attention as a universal way to connect to the Internet. BPL sends Internet signals to customers over power lines, and since most U.S. homes are connected to a power line, the service would be everywhere. But unlike broadband Internet services sent over phone lines and TV cable, BPL radiates interference. While BPL won't kill amateur radio, many hams, including Marzari, say it will drastically change it. "We don't know how strong the interference is going to be," Marzari said. If BPL comes to Harrisburg and if the interference is as strong as it has been in BPL trial areas, long-range communications would be impossible. In Emmaus near Allentown, PPL is sending Internet signals over electric lines into a trial area to determine how well BPL performs in homes and how much interference BPL will generate. Carl Stevenson, a Lehigh Valley ham, said he was shocked at how loud the BPL interference is. "It would cover all but the absolutely strongest signal," Stevenson said. Marzari said his concern is not only for ham operators but for people using BPL who may encounter interference from ham radios. "When I'm on, [the Internet] is going to be unusable in a very large area in our neighborhood," Marzari said. In an April 26 speech in Minneapolis, President Bush called for a rollout of BPL. "So how is some guy in remote Wyoming going to get any broadband technology?" the president asked. "Power lines can be used for broadband technology. So the technical standards need to be changed to encourage that." Despite Bush's charge, the FCC must change the rules before providers can link homes to the Internet using BPL. Present rules say BPL must cause no interference to other licensed radio services. Rule changes, which are expected by year's end, would allow some interference. "We're trying to set up a structure whereby it's better defined what we expect people can do without causing interference," said Bruce Romano, an FCC spokesman. BPL could be "the great broadband hope for a good part of rural America," Michael Powell, FCC chairman, said in a Feb. 12 speech. The American Radio Relay League, ham radio's lobbying organization, claims rural farms won't see BPL because it will be too expensive. The BPL signal would have to be boosted every 1,600 to 1,800 feet along the power line to amplify the Internet signal. "You get a rural area with four, five farms. They're not going to run it out there just for one or two people to sign up," ARRL President Jim Haynie said. "The [BPL] industry talks about how they can wire all of America. That's not true. It's not going to happen." The other problem, Haynie said, is BPL will interfere with radio signals between 2 megahertz and 80 megahertz. That includes ham radio operators as well as public service agencies such as police, fire and ambulance services. "There are literally thousands of small communities out here, population 5,000 to 50,000, that use VHF low band, as they call it, for their police departments," Haynie said. Many midstate counties, including Dauphin, Lancaster and Lebanon, dispatch firefighters using low-band frequencies. "Volunteer firefighters rely on pagers, which are on the low band," Marzari said. "They will miss the call if they are in the area of BPL." If BPL is deployed nationwide, Haynie said, police and fire companies would have to move to frequencies above 80 megahertz to avoid interference. That would mean buying new radios. "They can't even afford to fix the potholes in their streets, much less spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new communications system," Haynie said. Haynie believes that it will be the marketplace that saves ham radio operators from the BPL threat. There will be cheaper ways than BPL to get the Internet. The ham radio group is endorsing WiFi. It transmits the Internet by radio to transceivers attached to computers. WiFi frequencies offer little or no interference to hams and emergency service crews. Still, Haynie is frustrated by BPL. "This is the damnedest thing I've ever seen in my life," he said. "This is the worst of anything I've ever seen in my 30 years as a ham." TOM BOWMAN: 272-3759 or tbowman@patriot-news.com Copyright 2004 The Patriot-News. Used with permission.
K1DFT made today's New York Times.
Dave K1ZZ
Intriguing the Physicists, Radio Buff Shrinks an Antenna
June 10, 2004 By IAN AUSTEN
WHILE a lifetime in ham radio played a role, it was love that ultimately led Rob Vincent to develop what he says is a way to make antennas significantly smaller but still efficient.
"About 1995 I had met a sweetheart and we fell in love," Mr. Vincent, now 60, recalled. "I went to live with her, but the only problem was that she lived on this postage stamp of a yard in a congested neighborhood."
The real estate owned by Carolyn Hardie, the woman Mr. Vincent later married, was an issue because his amateur radio interests had turned toward frequencies in the 160-meter band. That band is close to broadcast AM radio. And, like an AM station, operating on it requires a tall antenna - in Mr. Vincent's case, one that is 140 feet high. Aesthetic and zoning questions aside, the 50-by-100 foot lot was not big enough to accommodate the guy wires needed to stabilize a tower that high.
So Mr. Vincent, a technician with the University of Rhode Island's physics department, began thinking about ways to make antennas smaller. The end result is a system that he claims can produce antennas that are one-third to one-ninth as high as normally required. He has spoken to other ham operators in over 80 countries on the 160-meter band through his relatively new, self-supported backyard tower, which is one-third of the conventional minimum size.
Mr. Vincent said his improvements were not just applicable to ham radio towers. They could be used to either further shrink the tiny antennas in cellphones, he said, or boost their efficiency.
Small yet efficient antennas have long been a goal for radio researchers, said R. Dean Straw, the senior assistant technical editor for the American Radio Relay League, an association of amateur operators. "The holy grail is an antenna the size of a grain of salt that produces big signals," he said.
Generally the size of antennas increases with the wavelength of the frequencies they are transmitting or receiving. While there are several formulas for determining optimum height, the height of most antennas is one-quarter to one-half the wavelength. At 140 feet, for instance, Mr. Vincent's ham tower would have been slightly higher than one-quarter of the wavelength of 160 meters, which is equal to 525 feet.
Smaller antennas can be used, but with a trade-off. "When you get below a quarter-wavelength, efficiency drops off dramatically," Mr. Vincent said.
Before arriving at the university in the early 1990's in a still-unfulfilled quest to complete his undergraduate degree, Mr. Vincent spent about 30 years in radio-related engineering jobs, mostly with a radar division of Raytheon. But his tinkering with antennas dates back to when he obtained his first amateur radio license at the age of 14.
"I've always had a natural understanding of radio - maybe it's from a prior life," Mr. Vincent said. "But in those early days I could not fathom how an antenna worked."
The relationship between antenna height and efficiency was so well established that he initially kept his antenna-shrinking work a secret. Mr. Vincent also acknowledged that he had relatively little idea of what might work when he began the project.
"When I started out to do this it was 10 percent theory and 90 percent black magic," he said. After reviewing much of the literature, Mr. Vincent started designing antennas with special simulation software on a personal computer.
From the most promising of those virtual designs, he ran tests using antennas that were about 18 inches high and fashioned from copper-covered Plexiglas rods. One model seemed particularly successful until it lost its signal during a high-powered broadcast test. When Mr. Vincent went outside, he found only a lump of molten metal and plastic.
Gradually, he said, potential areas of improvement became apparent. He began confiding in some friends from the ham radio world and faculty members in the physics department. One friend allowed Mr. Vincent to build a 46-foot-high experimental antenna at his country home, which includes a salt marsh.
Saltwater is an antenna builder's dream. By providing a highly conductive base for the antenna, the water improves reception.
The big prototype improved upon conventional designs in many ways. But one crucial one involved the placement of devices known as load coils along its length. Load coils are commonly used in cellphone antennas to alter their current patterns.
Conventional broadcast antennas, Mr. Vincent said, generally have a lot of current at the bottom and very little if any at the top. With his design, current is more evenly distributed.
To avoid suggestions that saltwater, not his design, was the magic, another 46-foot prototype followed, built on rock. It offered 80 to 100 percent of the efficiency of an antenna three times its size.
About three years ago, the University of Rhode Island became interested enough in Mr. Vincent's work that it gave him office space. After a review by engineering and physics professors, it began the process of patenting and selling the technology. Mr. Vincent has turned over all his rights to the university.
"We've seen test data from Rob Vincent and it sure is attractive," said Quentin Turtle, the director of industry research and technology transfer for the university.
Mr. Straw of the radio relay league said he was impressed with Mr. Vincent's work ethic. "But I remain somewhat skeptical,'' he said. "I'd like to see some validated field test measurements."
Mr. Vincent said he was aware that would-be buyers of his technology would demand better test results, although measuring the efficiency of antennas is difficult. But given the scrutiny his project has received to date, he said he was confident that his antennas would pass muster.
"I'm part of the technical staff to a whole bunch of Ph.D's," he said. "You can't fool these people."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/10/technology/circuits/10next.html?ex=1087872... ei=1&en=40893e88da1aa6ab
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