From: "Cliff KD4GT" <kd4gt@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: kd4gt@bellsouth.net, tentec@contesting.com
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Subject: [TenTec] BPL, RFI & FCC
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 10:50:29 -0400
Sometimes it takes a while before the actions of the FCC really come to
light.
An AP news story of 05/20/04 reports that a new Air Force radio system by
Motorola is being tested at Elgin AFB in Florida. Homeowners in the
surrounding area are reporting their garage door openers are no longer
functioning. An FCC spokesperson said that 'IF' the Air Force is operating
within its assigned frequencies then the users of the garage door openers
will have to change theirs.
Hmmm ... the FCC allowed these Part 15 devices to be produced even though
they operate around the 435~436 MHz area. We hams have 420-440MHz on a
'secondary' basis with the US federal government (military) being the
primary user. The FCC is also willing to let the RFID Tag folks crank up
the
power well beyond the Part 15 limits in this same area.
How long is it going to be before the BPL or RFID starts interfering with
critical communications and someone dies? Or maybe the FCC will just find a
solution of dropping all those nifty new gizmos into the ham bands? After
all, we are just 'amateurs' and don't really provide any beneficial return
for the bandwidth given to us.
Watching to see how this conflict between the Part 15 garage door openers
and the US military plays out will, at the very least, be interesting.
73 de KD4GT
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