1. Messages
  2. Private land-Use Restrictions

Re: Private land-Use Restrictions

Bob AF9W
 

Yes, they have talked to the National HOA, they are the leading opponent to the act.  They have also discussed this with the FCC, but the FCC says it is not their call until Congress acts.  If you live in an HOA then you need to convince them that emergency communications are good for the HOA.  Then you need to show them that antennas can be erected in such a way as to not interfere with the neighbors view of the world.  In AZ I made my wire antennas out of The Wireman’s 534-Antenna Wire, 26 AWG Copper-Clad Steel Stranded Jacketed antenna wire.  It’s virtually invisible but handles 100watts with no problem.  I had my antenna up for 10 years and no problems in an HOA that strictly forbid ham antennas.  The problem is that people who live in HOA’s picture ham antennas as 70’ towers with lots of aluminum. 

 

One of the problems with passing the law is that the National HOA verbally agreed to a deal where antennas would be allowed but they had to be approved by the HOA and the amateur community didn’t want that.  Much unreasonableness on both sides. 

 

Bob AF9W

 

From: ARRL-Antenna-Law-and-Policy@... <ARRL-Antenna-Law-and-Policy@...> On Behalf Of Ray
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2020 10:28 AM
To: ARRL-Antenna-Law-and-Policy@...
Subject: Re: [ARRL-Antenna-Law-and-Policy] Private land-Use Restrictions

 

Have they talked to the HOA National about this?  Are they having discussions with FCC?

Ray

W8LYJ



On Oct 27, 2020, at 08:39, Mike Polom <wa8vms@...> wrote:

I received this email in late March from my ARRL Division Director:

"The exact verbiage is still embargoed, pending fine tuning, but here is a synopsis.

1. Legislation which would pass a PRB-1 type exclusion for amateur antennas in HOAs.

2. Legislation which would allow limited amateur antennas in HOAs as an amendment to the OTARD (over the air reception devices) law.

        3. State driven legislation modeled after the flagpole laws and (in Florida) the garden and clothesline laws."

Subsequently, there was a report out by the Legislative Advocacy Committee at the July ARRL BoD Meeting.  The summary of that report out is as follows.
Mr. Tiemstra shared highlights of the report, calling attention to the appendix submitted that morning which included outcomes of their meeting with Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. He also provided a summary of their work on addressing private land use restrictions, noting the need to address this matter has only grown since it was introduced, adding that they have been meeting at least once a month, have had numerous exchanges with legislators on Capitol Hill, noting that the pandemic has prevented in-person meetings and has slowed their agenda. He added that their messaging is more successful when they define amateur radio as critical infrastructure of emergency service, which is front of mind right now. There was a discussion of the support that our efforts currently have in Washington and moving as quickly as possible on finding co-sponsors; at this time we cannot guarantee the success of anything, but we must continue to maintain a presence and cultivate friendly relationships in order to meet our goals.
There was a also discussion about providing talking points for Board members to use in talking to members about the HOA issue, as well as an ARRL guide for members to use in negotiating tactics on antenna use restrictions with their HOA’s, as our members expect the League to be actively working on these issues, which the Board concurred would be beneficial for all.

The actual report has not been posted to the ARRL Committee Reports website.  On September 11, 2020 I emailed N6JAT, N4MB and KG4JSZ requesting a copy of the whole report and, to date, I have received no reply from any of them.

As far as I can tell, no substantive progress has been made on this issue in the ~10 years it's been a priority at the ARRL.

Mike, NE8P
Join {ARRL-Antenna-Law-and-Policy@groups.arrl.org to automatically receive all group messages.