[Swprograms] BPL - very depressing

[Kevin Anderson <k9iua@xxxxxxxxx>]

I can't help but get very depressed when I read the
latest news on BPL/PLTC (power-line communications)
and it's effects on HF radio spectrum.  Glenn H. 
reported some of the latest in his DX Listening Digest
for April 9th (DXLD 4-066) with the tests in Raleigh,
NC.  While I am also a licensed amateur radio
operator,
and am certainly thankful there for the efforts of
the various international groups (ARRL, etc.) to
combat
this issue, I am also very much a shortwave radio
listener.  In fact it is in listening to the wireless,
whether that be MW, HF, VHF/FM that I get much 
enjoyment and identity, as I'm sure many of here do.
A loss in the ability to listen to international 
shortwave listeners by wireless will hurt me 
tremendously, even more, if I may dare to say so, than

if I lost my ability as a amateur radio operator.  And
even if I can still get the news and archived (or
live)
internet audio over ever more broadband, it is still 
not the same.  I can't say it enough - I love
wireless,
and wired news and programming is not the same, 
despite what all the broadcasters and news 
organizations may say.

It hurts all the more that the international 
broadcasters, including my own VOA, are cutting back 
on news bulletins and over-the-air broadcasts - a 
combination due to budget reductions affecting
everyone
and a change in the mission definition for most 
broadcasters.  This further lessens the ability to 
complain to BPL/PLTC providers, as there will be fewer

broadcasts to hopefully listen to.  A very depressing 
change of events for what I had hoped would still be 
40 years of fruitful life ahead  of me (I'm 44 now).  
I may still live that much longer, but it won't be 
with nearly the same level of enjoyment.  And there 
seems to be no amount of listening that I can do that 
will offset country broadcasting budgets.

At the same time I get excited about developments,
at least in the UK, about implementing broadband via
other methods.  In particular I'm excited about 
mesh-net methods, such as being implemented by
Telebria
http://www.telebria.com.
As a geographer and always thinking about community
and
"sense of place," a local technology, utilizing
already
existing tools, but implementing them with a sharing/
community emphasis is exciting.  My head explodes in
thinking about the possibilities.  If only the power
utilities in the U.S. would think this way instead!
We could have our cake and eat it to, plus possibly
add (or renew) a sense of community and connectedness
between people

Kevin Anderson


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-------------------------------------
Kevin Anderson, Dubuque IA USA, K9IUA
k9iua (at) yahoo (dot) com
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