FCC's Michael Powell to resign

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...3a11w&refer=us

Unfortunately, it probably means little as his replacement will be named by the same administration owing the same favors to the same GOBs in the lobby. FCC policy re keeping Janet Jackson's boobs off the tube is more likely to change that is the present course of BPL

Abel

Powell had pull. I Expect a more diluted chairman.

I don't think that BPL is going to be as big a deal as we think. Recent moves by cellular companies to introduce WiFi-MAX type technologies will push BLP to the side lines. In the Rural parts of the US it will allow cellular companies to put up one or two antenna's in a small town and give them internet and VoIP acess along with expanding current cellular coverage. All four major cellular carriers are rolling out some version of this in the next year or two. Currently it is becoming availible in Chicago and 20+ major markets as a test through T-Mobile. Cingular/ATT Sprint/Nextel are expected to roll something out in the next year. Even Comcast Cable is testing a similar system to provide phone, internet and TV programing over similar technology with in the next couple of years. It is cheaper for these types of companies to put up an short range (3-5 mile) antenna an connect it to one high speed line then to replace the phone lines in an entire area. And then there is the issue of overcoming the issues of BPL over the long distances over the dated infrastructure of the Western Plains and other distance rural area electrical systems.

I don't think RCers have much to worry about. We generally fly away from highly populated areas and away from power lines. We have relatively strong RC signals and very narrowband receivers. Propagation at 72 MHz is rarely more than line-of-sight, so any interference we receive from BPL will be limited to whatever is radiated in the immediate area.

It's the ham radio operators, particularly those who do HF DXing, that will get shafted. If BPL becomes popular the noisefloor over the HF spectrum will rise, and this will be worldwide, not just limited to the immediate vicinity of the source. I have worked Japan with less than 1 watt. Worlwide propagation over the 3-30 MHz range is common.