Texas BroadBand Over Power Line Information

Fellow West Texas Amateurs;

 

BPL REPORT FROM ASM Bill Lawless, W5WRL

The West Texas tour is going very well. So far I have met with the groups in Midland, Odessa, Alpine, San Angelo and Abilene and the response has been very positive. My last meeting was in Abilene where I was a member in the mid 70s. I saw some old friends and met some new. It was a great time. One of my objectives at these meetings is to pull together teams that will take the lead if and when BPL comes to their area. You can see how West Texas has been divided by going to http://ww.texasbpl.com and touching the West Texas Section map. The teams we have so far are listed below:

Texas BPL Teams

Amarillo/NWTX: Technical Advisor: Chip Andrews, N5LTZ	San Angelo: Technical Advisor: Bill Murphy, WA6CMJ Technical Advisor: Bob Freeman II, KD5PIX Coordinator: John Marshall, KC5FMX Information Officer: Chad Goodman, KD5SMK.
Midland/Odessa: Technical Advisor: Pat England, KB5MBK Coordinator: Robert Wood, W5AJ, Information Officer: Ralph Bowen, N5RZ Webmaster: Bill Bentley, N5POB.	Alpine: Technical Advisor: Terry D. Allison, P.E, K5TDA
Abilene: Technical Advisor: Charles Blythe, KD5TKR Technical Advisor: Joe Peterson, KD5YCY Coordinator: Gary Peterson, NZ5V Information Officer: Matt Strachan, KE4DXE.

I am looking forward to meeting with the folks in Lubbock, Amarillo and El Paso. If I have missed a club please send me an email to wlawless@w5wrl.com to schedule. We need more folks involved in the BPL fight. If you would like to participate on a team please let me know.

There was a very interesting item sent to folks on one of the BPL remailers recently. It is titled "Broadband Over Power-Line a Mid-Term Grade". The report is provided by what appears to be a finance and research company named Virchow Krause and Company. You can find the full report at the following address: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/documents/10_Broadband%20Over%20Power-Line%20a%20Mid-Term%20Grade.pdf

I encourage you to take a look at this report, its encouraging. I sent the report on to the Utility contacts I have and I encourage you to do the same. Here is an excerpt from the report:

To help weed through the pros and cons, we gave BPL deployment a mid-term grade report. The categories and the grades are:

• * Politics - A
  * Self-Promotion - B
  * Technical Performance - D
  * Business Model Demonstration - D
  * Market Identification - D
  * Pilot to Implementation Transition - F

This gives the BPL folks a "D" average. Would you invest in a technology that had this grade? Would you deploy a technology that was given this grade? Would you encourage the advancement of this technology as the FCC has with this grade? I doubt it.

So, do not let BPL get you down. Instead have fun with your hobby. In the October issue of QST was an article about MOCAD. MOCAD is a loose organization that requires no dues and no club meeting attendance. MOCAD stands for Make One Contact A Day. MOCAD was started by Steve Sheers, W8FAX. The rules are easy:

1. Make at least one contact a day.
2. Make a contact on any band.
3. Keep a log (You will want to show it off at the end of the year).
4. Tell at least one other ham about it each week.

This sounds easy and fun and will certainly increase the radio activity in your area.

Keep the faith.

Bill Lawless - W5WRL
Section Manager - West Texas