About Broadband Over Powerlines (BPL)
In 2005, Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) decided that it was time to investigate the new "broadband over powerline" technology. They had heard about other sites having trouble, especially with ham radio operators, so they decided to choose a site that represented the worst case scenario, in terms of radio activity. So, they decided to install the string of lines on Mill Street in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. The immediate area (one mile) contains five amateur radio stations and nine licensed operators...including myself, my father (KB1FWM), my neighbor Bob (WB1HAB), and his entire family (who are licensed).
I don't have all of the information, but what I do have was given to me by a company representative. One day, I got a knock on the door, and found the representative and the accompanying WMECO car. I knew right away what he wanted, since the rumors had been circling for a while. He assured me they wanted to do things differently here, and avoid the problem with interference. He encouraged me to report any interference, and said he had given the same speech to the other hams in the neighborhood. We went for a walk down Mill Street, and he pointed out the poles and the boxes to me.
I called the ARRL, and soon, there were quite a few hams hanging around the neighborhood. I got hundreds of emails from other radio enthusiasts, wondering if I had heard anything, or if my equipment was being "bothered" by the installation. To be perfectly honest, I never recieved any noise. I did eventually hear some hiccups on 17m, but I rarely use that band. I reported it anyway, in the interest of science and spectrum protection.
I wasn't too worried. It was the summer. I knew that October was coming soon, and with it, the CQWW contests. The test site lay directly in-line with Europe from my house, and I had every antenna aimed that way, with a few 1000z's ready to pump out a kilowatt.
I am told that the test site never really got moving. Apparently, there were very few subscribers to the project (I heard as low as one house). The project used a BPL backbone, with 802.11 going into each house (according to the representative). This was something new at the time, although I guess a few sites have tried it since. Anyway, the Feeding Hills site never really got rolling, and the noise on 17m went away. I believe the hardware also came down off the poles.
I am curious to know if we did any damage to the system in CQWW that year (especially CW). I hear hams on the air complaining about generator noise or a "loud" light in their shacks. I chuckle to myself. The biggest threat to our spectrum walked right into our neighborhood, and that didn't even stop us from contesting.