Do You Want NY State Financing BPL????

February 1, 2006

To: ARRL members in New York State

From:   ARRL Hudson Division Director Frank Fallon, N2FF
        ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR

RE: NYSERDA funding of BPL project in Westchester County, NY

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)
has agreed to provide up to $200,000 in funding in support of a
Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) project in Westchester County, New
York. The project has been the source of documented harmful
interference to radio communication frequencies in Briarcliff Manor,
New York since July 2003. The ARRL has complained repeatedly about the
interference, most recently on January 5, 2006 (see
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/01/06/3/>). NYSERDA has been
aware of the problematic nature of the Briarcliff Manor installation
since June 2004 but elected to go ahead with its funding anyway.

The Briarcliff Manor BPL system is violating the FCC rules in three
ways: 1) it is exceeding the absolute emission limits set out in Part
15 of the FCC rules; 2) it is causing harmful interference to amateur
radiocommunication; and 3) it is not listed in the BPL database,
www.bpldatabase.org <http://www.bpldatabase.org>. A 25-page technical
report documenting BPL emissions and interference as of December 5,
2005 is at:

http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/filings/Briarcliff-Complaint-Engineering-0106.pdf.

If you share our dismay that NYSERDA's funds are being used to support
a known source of radio spectrum pollution, write to Governor Pataki
and NYSERDA President Peter Smith to demand that the State of New York
use its influence to ensure that the Briarcliff Manor BPL project is
either brought into compliance with the FCC rules immediately, or shut
down.

Write to:

Governor George E. Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Mr. Peter R. Smith, President
NYSERDA
17 Columbia Circle
Albany, NY 12203-6399

Here are two examples of what you need to write.
[Click here for sample letters]
Please send a copy of of your letter to n2ff@arrl.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARRL Hudson Division
Director: Frank Fallon, N2FF
n2ff@arrl.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------