Powerline Ethernet Interference

["Tracey Gardner" <tracey.gardner@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Dermot

Having asked the question, here is the answer from Ed Hare who is the
ARRL's Laboratory Manager in the U.S.

Both technologies use the HF spectrum.
HomePlug has notches in the ham bands by chipset design.
DS2 chipsets have programmable notches, although that programming
needs to be included in the firmware of the modem they are used in
and/or in the applications software running the modem.
The BT modems appear to notch the ham bands but not the broadcast bands
HomePlug modems are quiet except when actually passing data,
while DS2 modems generate downstream carriers all of the time.
This generally gives HomePlug modems less of an interference foot print
on the HF broadbast bands, unless a neighbour is doing heavy-data
applications such as large file downloads, streaming video, etc.

Tracey



> However I wasn't aware that the consumer units also caused
> interference. I wonder if this is specific to the technology used in
> the BT units (DS3 I think) which is different from the Homeplug stuff
> that most places sell.


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