Originally posted by Borzak
Your as nuts as the people you poke fun at if you think the 170,000 members of the AMA will go head to head with the FCC "IF" indeed they do pursue broadband over powerlines and t interferes with out "currenty" frequencies.
We got a slice of the pie over a decade ago. You think the FCC is gonna cave in to 170,000 modelers when they could potentionally provide broadband service to millions - something that has congress pushing for ever increasingly these days.
If (and note I say "IF") they do go ahead and these pans out to be effective/cost effective/competitive form of broadband I would bet that we will be looking at new frequencies REAL soon in this sport.
Progress is progress and it will run over the smallest group for the greater good - if you don't think so I refer you to the THOUSANDS of acres my family lost to the TVA in the last century.
JR is right and you are right.
The problem is that too many of us stay 'inside the box' on this subject. We already know that our frequency band is under multiple attacks from commercial users looking for a place to put R/C construction equipment (that was the last big thing, but there are others) right in the middle of "our" *HOBBY* (the subject of another rant elsewhere - and it really is germane) band.
Sandy Frank's "AMA - the glue holding modelers together" line needs to be rejected and rewritten to be understood as "Modelers, the glue holding the AMA together" as soon as possible. The 'command' mentality demonstrated in the first sentence is part of what has been hurting the growth of the AMA for years, and WE need to change it to address problems like the BPL issue. This same 'command' mentality is what someone spoke against elsewhere when they observed that the first actions of the AMA are always to infringe on your rights.
Right now there is a serious perception problem about what the AMA is and what it is good for. So the real question becomes what story can we develop that offers the non-AMA member something other than just the insurance tale? Remember we have to 'sell' it to our current membership first, so it has to undo all the damage the 'insurance only' crowd has been encouraged to do by our unwillingness to face the issue seriously and carefully.
For several years I have been speaking of spread spectrum as the only reasonable solution to the risks we take when we fly R/C. I don't think BPL will destroy that option, rather it will increase the necessity of moving that way. However JR is right, we cannot even go there without stronger membership numbers.