BPL - Its closer then you might think!

Irving, Texas...

TXU electric and Oncore are testing BPL in the Irving area to determine if it is a feasible means to deliver highspeed internet to the general public. The BPL test is occurring with the confines of an apartment complex with two test users wit in the complex online. There are five BPL systems attached to the power lines. The BPL units are owned and operated by Amperion. On February 22, 2004 two amateur radio operators collect pre-test signals prior to the installation of the BPL system. The test systems were the following. Unit 1: Yaesu FT-100D (DSP, 2.4 SSB Filter), ATAS-100/ Unit 2: Yasesu FT-100(DSP, 2.4 SSB Filter), ATAS-120. The same units returned to the site on July 24th, 2004 to test after BPL was setup in the area. The following is the summary of the findings with recordings.

The area was pretty noisy with electrical noise noted in all HF amateur bands during the control testing. Highest noise levels were noted in the 4o meter band with an S7. Amateur signals were detected on all ham bands from 75 meters through 6 meters.

Once BPL was installed the story changed dramatically. Starting in the 80 meter band around 3.5 Mhz though 54+ Mhz every 3 Khz there was a 20 over 9 +signal. The signal was most pronounced across the 15 meter band (21 Mhz) with a 60+ signal. As well it was noted that in between the 3 KHz BPL carriers was what sounded like "whistlers" on LF. The signals produced varying signals from S7 to S20. Due to these signals the entire 75,60,40,30,20,17,15,12,10 and 6 meter amateur bands were completely unusable. S9 ham signals that were perfectly copiable outside of the BPL test area, we completely unintelligible within the test area. Six meters was open the day of the test but signals were unintelligible within the test area. BPL harmonics were detected in the 2 meter amateur radio band, one was S9 at 144.340 MHz. DSP filtering was totally ineffective against the interference.

Here is a summary of our tests.....