Jim,

Tnx for correcting my misunderstanding. Given the fact the power companies aren’t interested in making BPL available to “my relatives in Indiana” I’ll pull back on feeling kindly toward this line of thought. However, my basic point nonetheless remains. This is that we are “against BPL” as a concept, but rather we are against it as a matter of practicality – I think. We would not be fighting it if it did not pose the unquestionable threat of crapping all over our territory.

Jim W.

AMATEUR RADIO:  The only fail-safe communications system in the world.

ARRL:  The reason Amateur Radio is!

Jim Weaver, K8JE

Director, Great Lakes Division

5065 Bethany Rd.

Mason, OH 45040-9660

Tel. 513-459-0142

E-mail k8je@arrl.org

-----Original Message-----
From: W5JBP@aol.com [mailto:W5JBP@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 3:26 PM
To: arrl-odv
Subject: [ARRL-ODV:9491] Re: FCC's Commissioner Abernathy Praises BPL

In a message dated 09/25/2003 2:20:39 PM Central Daylight Time, k8je@earthlink.net writes:

I agree with Greg, the concept of using electric lines to make the
Internet more available in particular to folks in rural areas.

Jim, this is a false concept. The BPL boys are playing it up, but in reality the farmer Jones are not going to get it. Let us say you have a farm or house five miles out of town. First off, they say that they will pull fiber to the last mile. Then the signal has to be injected, by pass all the pole pigs and amplified every 200 meters. This is a very large investment and the BPL people are just not going to do it.

I was called by one of the BPL people and he admitted that they were just going to "pick the low hanging fruit." So, the idea that every home in America will have BPL broad band is a public relations hype.

73

Jim Haynie, W5JBP