From the WIA VK7 Division Weekly Broadcast

Broadcast from Sunday 9th May 2004
PLC/BPL Pilot in Hobart, Tasmania

Last Wednesday night six amateurs were privileged to have attended the
Aurora Energy building in Kirksway Place to hear about the small BPL trial
that is currently being undertaken by Aurora Energy.

A presentation was given by Piero Peroni, who is the Business Manager for
the BPL trial within Aurora Energy and Adrian Wild who is the Corporate
Affairs Manager within Aurora Energy.

After the presentation an open, frank and positive discussion was held
where, we expressed our concern about BPL technology and Aurora expressed
their reasons for trialing the technology. Aurora was happy to keep us
informed about developments, futures trials, etc.

We expressed our disappointment in the limited trial and they acknowledged
the limitations and that this trial is not the decision maker for their BPL
business case. They are also investigating wireless technologies and fibre
optics as strategies for delivering the last mile of broadband to consumer
and have not made their mind up on any of them as yet.

They passed on some presentations from an international conference they
recently attended on PLC as well as the presentation they gave. These
documents will be available in the Domain clubrooms for perusal. We then saw
the boxes that connect the PC network card to the power socket and also
inside the switchboard where there is a switchboard distribution box.
Pictures of these boxes are below.

Martin, VK7GN gave us a audible demonstration of the interference on his
portable HF receiver and I think the Corporate Affairs Manager was quietly
horrified at the noise!

We are hoping to try and arrange a meeting with the Mitsubishi engineers
when they return at the end of the trial.

Just a reminder, please keep your ear out for BPL/PLC type interference on
the HF bands and keep a log of the interference that includes
time/date/band/strength, and if possible record it.

A sound file of the BPL trial in all its horrific splendour that was made by
Eric, VK7TAS can be found on this site.
http://www.tased.edu.au/tasonline/vk7wia/Brdcast.htm

--
*Eliminate Qru, Qrt & Broadband over Power Lines to ragchew!
**Stephen Newlyn, VK5VKA. G'day from the City of Elizabeth, South Australia.
***Visit the "Stop BPL" page
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~vk5vka/stopbpl.htm
****Visit my Home Page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~vk5vka/index.html


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