We may have the first major deployment of power line based Ethernet in the US. Echostar, which most people know as DISH Network, is now recommending that users install PLT adapters in their homes if their router is in a different room than the satellite receiver.
These adapters use the HomePlug standard, better for us than the DS2 than is causing all the trouble in the UK, but not always by much.
DISH receivers use Ethernet to communicate with the network for ordering pay per view, etc, if there is no landline telephone connection available. Most users already have these receivers connected to landlines, so hopefully there will not be a wide deployment.
If HF interference is traced to one of these systems, the options available to remedy the situation are as follows:
Do nothing. Maybe the FCC will help, but probably not. At this point you will have to give up utility DXing.
Ask the users to:
Move the router nearer the satellite receiver;
Run network cabling;
Run a long landline cord to the receiver.
Obviously, this last one is probably the simplest, unless the customer only has a cell phone and a high speed Internet connection.
As tecnology evolves, and everyone comes up with more uses for Ethernet than communicating with laptops via Wi-Fi, home PLT adapters will become standard items seen all over. Unless something changes, at this point the HF utility hobby will be over.
Sorry, but it's that simple, unless something happens to change this sad situation. I'm out of ideas. ARRL won't help and I don't see the necessary unity in the USA.
I hope this is too gloomy.
