re: Your Internet article "Hydro-Québec to test internet over power lines"
Gentlemen! It is bad enough that RCI is under-funded almost to the point of
invisibility, but that CBC staffers could possibly not know these systems
use the same frequencies as, and do interfere with, shortwave broadcasting,
is reprehensible.
A certain amount of ignorance as to technical details may be expected among
a technologically illiterate public, but to say that "some broadcasters use
electrical wires as antennas for radio signals" reveals a deep
misunderstanding of an everyday technology with which we -- and CBC
staffers -- should all have become acquainted in our teenage years.
Yes, "the internet signals could interfere with radio and television
reception." Not all of them, however. After all, not all television
channels are on the same frequencies as powerline communication systems.
("Internet" requires capitalization, by the way.)
Mr. Bouliane's comment therefore oversimplifies things, but it is at least
basically correct.
Hydro Québec, on the other hand, have no such excuse. You (and a great
number of US residents, too) expect Hydro to be technically competent. If
they ARE, then it is at least disingenuous to say that "interference
doesn't occur over cables that provide both television and internet
service." Of course not. They are on _different_ frequencies -- a fact
Hydro may have conveniently forgotten to mention. And if Hydro Québec
truly believe what they said relevant to their scheme... I refer you to Mr.
Bumble's opinion of the law in Dickens' "Oliver Twist." And God help you,
for it will be a very cold Winter.
Hydro-Québec, also, if they really hope to offer the service in a few
years, in addition to wearing technological blinders, are a financial
Never-Never land. The businesses who have tried to succeed with this
technology have failed for reasons no number of optimistic words from
executive suites, nor Public Relations at its most creative, can overcome.
Regards,
Cortland Richmond
KA5S
Rohnert Park, California, USA
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