Working with Local Government That is Considering Implementing BPL

David Yoder, Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club (http://www.cvarc-pa.com)

In September 2004, the CVARC learned that the Borough of Chamberburg, PA was considering installing a broadband over power line (BPL) system in Chambersburg.  The club started a long series of discussions and actions that ultimately was a significant part of the Borough’s decision not to implement BPL.  This document outlines some of the steps, in the hopes that other clubs can learn from them.

Some might say that the club was lucky that things turned out well, but “luck” came about only because many members of the local amateur community put time in to fight BPL right up front; before the municipality had thrown so much money at it that it had a stake in it succeeding.  I can't emphasize that enough - putting people in front of the decision makers, working with the press (I alone gave several hours of time to reporters, just to get a couple lines- but it was worth it), and so forth paid off because we jumped in as soon as we heard BPL was being considered.

 

In brief, the approach that we took to make sure Chambersburg understood our concerns. A lot of these materials can be found on our website, cvarc-pa.com.

 

The first inkling the club had was that someone in the club that follows local government closely noted that funds had been paid to the Shpigler Group for a study of the market feasibility of BPL for the Chambersburg's municipal-owned utility.  Right away we got on the job, and organized a meeting to plan strategy.  We got a copy of the contract for the study, and we made contact with the Borough to let them know we were "interested" in commenting on the issue.

 

Next, we showed up at a council meeting with about thirty amateurs, and made it clear that we were there simply to show our interest. Usual audiences for these meetings run three or four.  I represented the group there, and told the council that we would not take up their time at that point, but we would like a chance to see the report from the consultant, and be given a time on the agenda, following the consultant's presentation (and not the same night).  After that, I sat down, and I then stayed for the rest of the meeting. Milt N3LTQ then simply mentioned some of the areas where BPL could impact- public safety low-band, business licensees, etc. Most of the amateurs got up and left right after our remarks (which lasted less than 5 minutes).  We were assured that we would be part of the process. We also spoke with the press, and had a handout to give them and council (about three pages).

 

The next day I was contacted by the consultant, who wanted to meet with me prior to his presentation.  I told him I would be happy to do so, if I were accompanied by several other amateurs, and we could meet after his presentation.  We both parted politely without firm plans to get together.  There never was another overture.

 

We were informed of the date of Mr. Shpigler's presentation, and showed up.  I got a copy of his presentation but to date have never received a copy of the report itself.  The presentation lasted over an hour, and was not geared to specifics, except that of the population of Chambersburg.  It was a very optimistic, broad-brush kind of thing, promising to make the Borough thousands of dollars directly, and create millions of dollars of new jobs.  All that was needed was a minuscule investment of a few dozen thousand dollars over the course of the next year, etc.  No specific type of BPL was actually specified, although three different kinds were alluded to.  He also had representatives from a Virginia pilot BPL present.

 

Our questions were sidestepped, and largely ridiculed.

 

We then prepared our presentation.  Throughout this a large number of hams in the area were researching BPL in general, on-going pilots, and the Shpigler Group.  We found some very interesting things, such as the interest Mr. Shpigler has or had in Electric Broadband LLC, the company running the Cottonwood, AZ pilot at that time.  We looked into the number of abandoned pilots, looked at the costs to the utilities involved.  We piggybacked on the work done by ARRL, and the amateurs under siege in areas where BPL was in place.  We really appreciated Walter Cronkite's video, which we used as an introduction to what amateur radio is, and why it matters.

 

We decided that we would provide most of our detail in a packet, which was almost 200 pages thick, and focus our presentation on three areas - who amateurs are and why they are good for the community, how BPL is bad, and failing to commercially justify itself, and some information regarding the Shpigler Group, and why they might want to help Chambersburg write specifications, contact vendors, etc.  We specifically decided that our presentation would use PowerPoint, but be very colorful, carefully documented, and last no more than twenty (20) minutes.  We also decided that we would let the videos from Allentown show how BPL interfered, and that our tack was, as amateurs we LIKE progress.  We use the Internet.  We are consumers, too, and are in favor of competition.  We also pointed out that all our research was done on the Internet, using cable and dial-up.  (We also noted that the consultant, based on Long Island, uses a cable connection for his Internet connection). 

 

Our message was that we didn’t want our community to be guinea pigs.  BPL is not ready for prime time.  Wait until the bugs get worked out.  We felt this made a lot more sense than simply jumping up and down and shouting about the interference, as much as many of us would really have enjoyed that. 

 

Before the presentation, we made sure our A/V equipment worked with the projector in the room. We anticipated questions and how we would answer them. . 

 

Mr. Shpigler attended.  After our presentation, he made no attempt to question us, or to make a public statement.  He did contact us later by e-mail, but we responded in a timely (and firm but professional) manner.

 

The Council indicated that at that time, there were no plans to go forward, as budget time was looming.  There were no questions about our presentation, which appeared to be well received.  We again got good press, by taking the time to talk with reporters and making sure they got everything the council got.

 

This was not a short, thrown-together effort.  Our members, such as George N3GH, who provided workspace, computer access, and meeting area, Todd N3MMH, who was a superb resource on putting the presentation together, Milt N3LTQ, and a score of others who did the research, put hours and hours into the effort, and the club spent hundreds of dollars on copying costs to make sure that amateur radio showed its "professional" face clearly.  Also, without the input from hundreds of other hams, and the support of the ARRL, we could not have pulled together all the documentation, and the illustrative videos, which gave our effort its punch, and showed off our hobby as something other than a bunch of grousers playing with vacuum tubes.  In the end, the fact that we, the amateurs, were more prepared, more polished, more truthful, and of more value to the community, made our message for us.

 

I am putting a copy of this out on our group e-mail, and I encourage everybody to send you any corrections, additions, or the like so you can get the best picture possible.  Please let me know if there is anything further we can pass along.