Monday morning we heard that the New York State Energy Reasearch and Development Authority (NYSERDA) had contracted with ConEd and Ambient to provide up to $200,000 in funding for the BPL pilot in Westchester County, NY. This is the project that has been generating interference in Briarcliff Manor since at least July 2003 and has been the subject of a string of complaints to the FCC. Our concerns have been on record with NYSERDA since June 2004 when Ambient prematurely announced a funding grant. Yesterday I had a phone call to NYSERDA returned by John Love, the NYSERDA project manager for the BPL grant. He confirmed that the contract had been signed. I shared with him our disappointment at Ambient's involvement given their miserable track record in Briarcliff Manor and told him they were in violation of the FCC rules there in three ways: (1) exceeding the absolute limits in Part 15, (2) harmful interference in amateur bands, and (3) failure to be included in the BPL database. To make it clear that our concerns are based on actual experience I also told him that not all BPL companies were alike and mentioned Current, Motorola and IBEC as companies that appeared to be capable of adhering to the rules. He clearly didn't know much about the interference issue. NYSERDA's interest is in BPL as a means of improving power delivery quality. However, he said the contract requires the parties to monitor and report on interference and its mitigation. I offered ARRL's technical resources to educate him. I also promised him that there would be complaints going to the Governor's office from radio amateurs in New York State about NYSERDA's involvement in this project. Directors Frank Fallon and Bill Edgar have sent email alerts to their members in New York State. The alerts conclude: "If you share our dismay that NYSERDA's funds are being used to support a known source of radio spectrum pollution, write to Governor Pataki and NYSERDA President Peter Smith to demand that the State of New York use its influence to ensure that the Briarcliff Manor BPL project is either brought into compliance with the FCC rules immediately, or shut down. "Write to: Governor George E. Pataki State Capitol Albany, NY 12224 Mr. Peter R. Smith, President NYSERDA 17 Columbia Circle Albany, NY 12203-6399" Thanks to Bill and Frank for getting on this so quickly. Dave K1ZZ