Well, much as I wish Bruce Franca saw things our way, we don't have another Duke Cunningham situation here, and it would be really unwise of us to float such accusations without proof. Bruce is a career FCC staffer who is simply following the last marching orders he was given on BPL. Kevin Martin is not Michael Powell, and on other issues he has made a point of distancing himself from Powell. We've given him the basis to add BPL to that list but it's a relatively small issue compared to what else is on the FCC's plate and it probably doesn't have his full attention (although I sent him an advance copy of the December QST editorial and received a personal acknowledgment). Chris has made an appointment for me to see Mike Wilhelm on December 8 to talk about restructuring. He tried to get me into the chairman's office the same day to talk about BPL but there wasn't a slot available. We'll keep trying. If we can't get in to see Chairman Martin perhaps we can get in to see the two Democrats, who as of December 9 will be in the majority on the FCC unless the Senate confirms Debi Tate and she takes office in the meantime. In the meantime the strategy is to make sure no one thinks we're going to go away quietly. We're working on another BPL database complaint, this time about systems that are operating without having been put into the database. (There are only a few such that we know of -- even more telling is that as far as we can tell there are only 60 Zip Codes represented in the data base, most of which are tiny trials and some of which we know have never been activated.) Dave K1ZZ ________________________________ From: Bob Vallio [mailto:rbvallio@gmail.com] Sent: Thu 12/1/2005 12:41 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: ARRL complaint re BPL database Perhaps I am missing something here, but it appears to me that no matter what proof we offer of failure to comply with the R&O, or any part of 47 CFR to any Commission staff member, it is ignored or dismissed out of hand. Can we suggest to someone in the Federal government that we suspect some of these people are guilty of malfeasance or misprision? One definition of malfeasance is "Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official;" and one definition of misprision is "Negligence or misconduct in inferior officers." Franca seems to fit both definitions. It's time to stop accepting the way the ARRL is being treated by these weasels. Bob Vallio, W6RGG On 11/30/05, Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ <dsumner@arrl.org> wrote: Yesterday I received the following response from Bruce Franca, dated November 22, 2005, to my complaint about the BPL database [arrl-odv:13197]. Dear Mr. Sumner: This is in response to your letter dated October 14, 2005 regarding the Office of Engineering and Technology's announcement that United Telecom Council ("UTC") will serve as the Access Broadband over Power Line (BPL) database manager. In that letter, you charge that the BPL database maintained by UTC, as currently configured, fails to comply with Section 15.615 of the Commission's rules. (47 U.S.C. Section 15.615.) You specifically are concerned that inquiries by the public are limited in number and that access to the information in the database is available only by Zip Code area. You maintain that the restrictions are not consistent with the requirement for a "publicly available database" contained in Section 15.615(a) of the Commission's rules. (47 C.F.R. Section 15.615(a).) You ask that the Commission re-evaluate the database provided by UTC and either declare it noncompliant or work with UTC to fully meet the requirements for public access to all information in the database, free of unsupported restrictions. Your concern, limiting access to the database, does not constitute a violation of the rules. Subsection (d) of the subject rule clearly states that the purpose of the rule is to permit identification of possible sources of "harmful interference that is suspected to be caused by an Access BPL system." 47 C.F.R. Section 15.615(d); see also Report and Order in ET Docket No 04-37, 19 FCC Rcd 21300, 21301 (2004). Permitting individuals who are using a licensed service that operates on the same frequencies as are used by a BPL system to query for pertinent information in the geographic area of that interference fully fulfills this function. As the Commission concluded in the Report and Order, Zip Codes are easily understood and can be identified by all parties and thus provide an organized approach to accomplish this objective. Database queries will provide the information required by our rules for BPL systems deployed within a Zip Code. I hope this has been responsive to your concerns. If you have further questions, please contact me. Sincerely, Bruce Franca Acting Chief Office of Engineering and Technology After coordination with Chris Imlay, this morning I sent the attached reply. Dave Sumner, K1ZZ <<Franca4.doc>>