Willem replied:

Geez you're up late young fella!!!

Lone Wolf replied:

I sort of haven't read EVERYTHING, but I get the general gist of what's going on.

I am assuming this is the death of HF?

I'd hate to be working for Codan right now.

This sort of rings a little bit like, throw away your analogue phone, and buy a GSM digital, or CDMA, or Sat, or .......

Same as TV's, soon you WILL have to go wide screen, or miss out on the bits on the edges.

Then, you WILL have to go digital.

Then, you WILL have to get new digital radio's, as AM & FM will all jump onto the new format, NOVA in Sydney is trialing as we speak.

Tell me, does this Broadband render HF TOTALLY useless?

Cheers

Wolfie

Bonz (Vic) replied:

John how do I look at that url? I plug it in and it says it cant find it.

Banjo (SA) replied:

My mail says Codan are not worried - Barrett and Qmac etc (possibly other makers) may also not be worried - probably because they sell 90-95% of their product overseas where BPL must not be a worry. For global marketers, Oz is simply an unimportant backwater - marketing strategey is built for the big populations - they just toss us the same deal, take it or leave it. I have this feeling that HF will be around for a long time yet, that BPL may not be a big issue and while the 'military' must have HF for effective comms when the chips are down, that part of the spectrum has to be left effectively working. It is true that licenced users of HF (such as VKS737) can object to interference on their allocated frequencies at any time - the offender has to fix it by law, BUT proving the source is another thing (as always).

Member - Collyn R (WA) replied:

I suspect HF radio is only partially about communications - in the same way that a Morgan car is only partially about transport.

I forecast the imminent death of HF radio in the first editions of my Campervan and Motorhome Book. And was very wrong indeed!
Collyn Rivers

Member - John (Vic) replied:

I am not saying that HF is dead.
I am not saying that BPL will destroy HF totally.
Some have said that BPL will never happen,
Some say that the Government will protect the HF spectrum because of military and other users.

The only point I make with these posts is to provide additional information to people who have a interest in HF so that you can make your OWN informed decision on were we are going with this.

I personally believe that BPL will come to Australia in a commercial sense for all the reasons that I have stated on previous posts the bottom line being MONEY.

Will it cause disruption to all areas of Australia, I don't think so but as VKS have stated that the potential interference will be such that vast areas of Australia will be effectively negated, The overall effectiveness and reliability of the HF spectrum will come into question as we know it.

The underlying point is that many have said BPL won't happen because the technology does not work etc etc the testing proves otherwise if you read the information on the respective news groups and web site's I have provided.
I personally have no doubt that the technology will be improved and brought to market.
I also point out that some of the info listed also reported data transfer rates in excess of ADSL rates this tells me they are already along way along with this.

If you were to be considering the purchase of a HF radio right now you would have to give it deep consideration given this information.

hl replied:

Hi all,

To sacrifice a resource like HF radio to deliver broadband internet access to SOME people is truly ludicrous. The HF radio spectrum has properties unlike any other part of the radio spectrum. It is possible to communicate right around the globe, without the aid of satellites, with just a few watts of power. No other part of the spectrum allows this! PBL may well pollute this resource to make it unusable, not just in a small area, but worldwide!
Most people seem to thing that this technology merely involves injecting the "internet signal" at some point in the power grid, and voila', the whole country can plug in their modems and surf the net forever and a day. It is not like that at all! It will only work for relativly short distances (like a few 100 meters) from an injection point and if there is not enough demand in an area, the power companies will be loath to supply the infrastructure, just as Telstra are loath to upgrade their exchanges for ADSL if there are not enough customers to support it in a given area. And ADSL works for for quite a few kilometers from a telephone exchange!
However, just a few "injection points" may well affect radio communications over 1000's of kilometers, depending on propagation conditions.
I am a licensed radio amateur and while I would willingly accept a new technology at the expense of my hobby if it is for the "greater good", this one is not it!

Cheers all...