Re: [SLUG] Hi Chuck..

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Tue Jun 21 2005 - 16:57:20 EDT


On Tue, Jun 21, 2005 at 04:34:06PM -0400, Robin 'Roblimo' Miller wrote:

>
> >Not to open a can of worms, but what's up with Florida Power's broadband
> >over power lines?
> >
>
> BPL (broadband over powerlines) is pretty much dead despite much foo
> from electric companies a few years back.
>
> Aside from interference, bypassing all the transformers turned out to be
> a problem everyone... umm... forgot about. And there have been other
> technical problems, like signal attenuation, which would require more
> relay equipment $$ than it would take to put up wireless towers. Plus
> wireless technology has gotten much better since the BPL idea first hit.
>
> There's a company in Ohio that claims to have licked some of these
> powerline problems - except for the "last mile" one from the final
> stepdown xfrmrs, so their deal is to put wireless points on light poles.
> I looked at some of their info, can't see what advantage their stuff
> offers over other transmission paths.

Here's the other thing I always wondered-- that carrier signal and its
data are getting fed into every device I have in my house. I'm sure my
toaster won't care. But what does this stuff do to the power waveforms
in other equipment like TVs, computers, DVD players, etc.? All of a
sudden I don't have a pure sine wave anymore, but one with a lot of
"jiggle" to it. I'm not an electrical engineer, so I have no idea what
it would do. But judging by the goofs I've seen in the past, I wonder if
the power company's engineers really thought it through.

Paul
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