FCC adopts rules for broadband over power line

Mobile Radio Technology ^ | Oct 15, 2004 | Donny Jackson and Glenn Bischoff

[off-roader]

Again, HAM radio is a hobby and one with greatly diminishing interest as well. Please, do not force your hobby above the nationwide economic needs for competitive broadband.

And as another poster mentioned. Yes fiber to RF towers is coming. 4G will be a revolution with Ethernet Speeds on full mobility.

And CB radios? Give me a break! They are mostly useless unless within close proximity or for RF skip junkies. This is old technology that should be put to bed now! May BPL be the long deserved nail in that coffin and a path to it's successor. What a sad joke that industry is! The CB manufacturers are still pushing 30 year old technology to this day without a meaningful technological addition worth even considering in a far stretch.

[Wampus SC]

"IMSO, Amateur Radio GHz 99.5% arcane hobby and %.5% beneficial to society. The whinings of the ARRL are self serving, ludicrous and narrow sighted. Technology available to non-hobbyists continues to advance, ever diminishing the benefits of Amateur Radio to society while at the same time, the Amateur Radio Community struggles radically to gain membership. In fact, the common track is to continually reduce aptitude requirements for licensing. A death spiral I see!"

Remember those words come the next hurricane, big forest fire, or attack on the infrastructure. ANd stick to them - and refuse any information that came your way via ham radio.

What would you have rural police, fire and EMS depts. on low band do when their calls can't get thru due to BPL interference? Someone who's an expert on off roading is very familiar with conditions in remote rural areas by definition - and thus has the answer to that problem. Right?

[Wampus SC]

All good points.

The FCC ought to just go ahead and upgrade all the Techs to General right now. They wouldn't be getting anything useful, now.

[July 4th]

Amateur radio engineers have used the amateur spectrum as a testbed for many of the wireless technolgies and packet structures now seen in the mass market. Over 10 years ago, two of my friends had a 10 mbit microwave link between their PCs, and the transmission theories behind their links are the same that were eventually incorporated into the 802.11 standards. Additionally, hams were doing digital spread spectrum years before the technology made it into cordless phones and other mass market uses.

[Squantos]

Need your professional opinion over here Al !

[TechJunkYard]

FCC Chairman Michael Powell called amateur radio operators “an important resource” and expressed hope that the rules the FCC has created will protect them, but he said obstructing the deployment of BPL is not an option.

Unacceptable. I am flabbergasted by this man's total disregard of the public service we hams provide, all for a business plan.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related topic:

Top electronic makers to set standards for power-line networks ( Japanese manufacturers )