Amateur Radio Parity Act (HR 555) is FCC Decision

[INDY72]

Another way of looking at it:

HOAs are concerned about aesthetics. An antenna setup may be a thing of beauty to a ham operator but an eyesore to a non-ham and most of the residents are non-hams.

Can we get an AMEN?! To any of us radio folks, an tastefully done professional looking set up is an work of art. To Mrs. Q. Smith that is going to be in her husband's ears 24/7, that set up is an act of Satan himself, and is going to send her perfect Yard of the Month yard straight to Hello... And all the other Mrs. Smiths in the rest of that neighborhood are going to feel the exact same way. And no, I am not being melodramatic on this one. I am being rather tamely honest. All those poor Mr. Smiths are going to want you gone, gone, gone, so their wives. will shut up. And wouldn't you know it? You signed that nifty contract so they can get you gone, gone gone. But this argument will go on until an mod gets tired of this and locks the thread. Why? Everyone thinks they are the only one right. Til they find out they are wrong in a courtroom.

 

[alcahuete]

It's real simple. You can have a vertical antenna/wire antenna (perhaps up to 3) placed in the rear of the house, that sticks up no more than 10 feet above the roofline.

Done. If you don't like that, then you can follow the HOA's rules and have no antennas at all. This is not difficult.

 

[ipfd320]

Wow Really--That Simple--OK I will take your simple advice and put up 30 ft of pipe and when the neighbor runs over to the office to complain about what this is and i get the notice ill have you find me a new place to live and pay my rent because i took you advice

I Guess you dont live in a ccr / hoa so really if you dont you dont have a clue

 

[KK4JUG]

It's real simple. You can have a vertical antenna/wire antenna (perhaps up to 3) placed in the rear of the house, that sticks up no more than 10 feet above the roofline.

Done.

And when the word gets around, and you know it will, you're toast.

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

I'll give you an "Amen' Milf... tho let's not close this circus.
....... Its pointing out how varied many feel about this Parity thing- there are a lot of people with gored oxen in the debate.
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Like anything that involves Congress; nothing here to hold your breath for.
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Lauri

 

[alcahuete]

Wow Really--That Simple--OK I will take your simple advice and put up 30 ft of pipe and when the neighbor runs over to the office to complain about what this is and i get the notice ill have you find me a new place to live and pay my rent because i took you advice

I Guess you dont live in a ccr / hoa so really if you dont you dont have a clue

Yes...I don't have a clue. Apparently you didn't read the thread at all. People in this thread are questioning what is to stop somebody from putting up a 200 foot tower if this bill were to pass.

I said the answer is simple, you just have limitations in the bill to prevent that from happening. If some hams aren't happy with those limitations, then the hell with them. They can go back to having no antenna at all.

Any more questions for cluless ol' me?

 

[alcahuete]

And when the word gets around, and you know it will, you're toast.

Again, read the tread. See my post above.

 

[weirdtolkienishfig]

Screw HAMS... how about VETS FLYING FLAGS!!!!!! Real heros!!!! A lot of HOA's won't let them fly flags.

 

[KE0GXN]

I don't think anyone on here is advocating for someone being able to have the K3LR station in their HOA backyard.

What I am for is what many on here are saying...is permission for some poor guy to hang a simple G5RV in their backyard. I am just not getting where the parity act is advocating for folks to have permission to erect a contest station in their HOA

With that said, are there some hams out there who want the parity act to accommodate just that? Sure there is, but I would suspect they are in the minority.

Simple deal is, you can either support it or not, I doubt we are going to change anybody's mind on here, one way or the other. So you can continue to write your representatives and ask them to nix the bill and folks like me will keep writing mine asking they pass it.

Either way the extremism on here is entertaining to say to the least.

 

[ipfd320]

Well said t the problem is that the rewording on the act before it was to go to the h.r section was more in favor for the hoa astedics enforcement even More than what they are today
PRB-1 Shows the FCC dont want anything to do with Us--Something has to Give (I Think im Gonna be a Wireless Telecom Company)..lol then the FCC will Care and Give---Anyway

--Here is a Letter from Sen.Bill Nelson one our club members got from him

this is What Our Member Wrote in his email to us --Bills Reply is Followed

This is the first time in several years of writing to Nelson that he has responded.
Like many in the Amateur community, I am very disappointed that he has thwarted
this on at least three and possibly four attempts. Finally, he has acknowledged to
me that his opposition is based on HOA issues. While I agree that rights of all parties
must be balanced, I think that is what the Parity Act would have accomplished. The
league leadership, including Chris Imlay have expressed concerns that without a similar
act Amateur Radio could die a death of "a thousand cuts" as more deed restrictions will
likely be the rule in the future.

Thanks for your help.

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Dear Mr xxxxxxx.(name edited)

Thank you for contacting me regarding regulation of amateur radio communications.

I recognize the important role amateur radio operators play in enhancing public safety communications, particularly during emergencies, and believe it’s important to find the right balance between operator’s interests and those of the thousands of community homeowner associations across the country.

Looking ahead, I remain open to working with my colleagues on this issue, and will carefully consider proposals that take into account the needs of amateur radio operators and the rights of homeowners and community associations.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinions with me. Please don't hesitate to contact me in the future.

Sincerely,
Bill Nelson

 

[KE0GXN]

I agree Anthony. The bill may be poorly written and I have heard from all the prominent ham lawyers making the ham radio talk show circuits about how harmful it may be. However, I am also of the opinion, something is better than nothing. And right now HOA hams have nothing....except being sneaky and hoping and praying they don't get caught...

 

[rescue161]

Dipoles work fairly well inside of the attic. There are plenty of options. People that are in HOA/CC&R locations have to be creative. In the end, it was their decision to move into a restricted area, so it should be up to them to come up with a solution; it is not the responsibility of the Congress to help these hams circumvent the rules to which they agreed.

 

[needairtime]

Time to buy homes longer in the east-west direction and hope horizontal polarization ground waves is sufficient, perhaps having the antenna completely embedded under the roof line.

Has anyone had troubles with any 2m or 70cm antennas? As these tend to be quite short, they're probably more benign.

I suspect they are worried about the 160m quads and any attempt at circular polarization...

 

[alcahuete]

In the end, it was their decision to move into a restricted area, so it should be up to them to come up with a solution; it is not the responsibility of the Congress to help these hams circumvent the rules to which they agreed.

People keep throwing that around in this thread, and it's actually quite silly. The rules in my former HOA were constantly changing, and they weren't voted on by the people. They were voted on by the Board. Yes...I suppose the Board was voted on by the people, but that's neither here nor there. The rules were subject to drastic change, and in most cases were NOT the specific rules you agreed to in the CC&Rs prior to moving in.

When there was no cable TV (this was before DirecTV was even thought of) small TV antennas were allowed, but no satellite dishes (the huge ones). You could get away with putting an amateur vertical on the TV antenna, or even using a small beam and saying it's a TV antenna. Then cable moved in. TV antennas were outlawed, with a 60 day notice to remove them. Then when DirecTV came along, those dishes were allowed.....for a year. Then the next Board said those are not allowed either. Then one Board said you can have them, but only one dish, i.e. you can't have a TV dish plus an internet dish. By the time I moved out, the dishes were all allowed again, but only 2 or fewer. Same nonsense went on for paint colors, landscaping, and other aesthetic items.

So yes, I suppose when moving in to an HOA community, you know what you're getting yourself into, but to say all these people are trying to circumvent the rules they agreed to is just nonsense.

 

[KE0GXN]

^ That and the guy that finds the hobby after getting involved in the above mess.

Thread after thread in various ham related forums on the internet asking, "How do we grow the hobby, get folks involved and on the air?" But yet here we are telling potential HOA newcomers, "Sucks to be you!"

 

[needairtime]

as the density of people end up getting larger and larger in metropolitan and suburban areas, more and more people are subject to HOAs. If people want more people to be HF hams, that percentage of population of people who have land to build HF antennas will get smaller and smaller because the amount of land available to grow antennas (or people willing to share land for antennas) isn't getting any larger.

I guess it's good that at least they get them on VHF/UHF where the antennas are small...

I suspect I'll forever also be in the HF category: Have License, No Antenna. I don't have a radio either yet, though will try to see what I can do hacking a CB radio for ham bands someday, but that 9ft whip is probably all I can do, and perhaps only if I attach it to a car parked in the driveway which the HOA also has problems with...

 

[Lauri-CoyoteFrostbite]

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Ahhh, cheer up Guys-- all's not lost ...there are plenty of options to contravene those covenants.
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While its quite hopeless, if you ask me, that any sort of "Parity" will ever pass Congress- it doesn't mean one should sit in a darken'd room with a sack cloth pulled over their ash smeared body, wailing in misery.
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Attic antennas certainly can be successful; gutter/down spout isolation and loading schemes can get very creative **, "invisible" dipoles using #26 Ga. wire- there are myriad OCF long wire antennas stung to a trees, verticals disguised as flag poles, NVI wire antennas run along the inside of your wooden back fence, shorten terminated longwires, operate mobile --- or use my favorite stealth antenna, a DDRR radiator sitting on a back deck.
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I have only touch'd on the possibilities; I have seen many of these in successful operation and even used a few myself over the years (ie: my college apartments.)
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If you want to get more creative, get together with some friends and do a remote HF station commanded over the internet, maybe with a UHF link-- think of the beauty in that-- just your lap top or a handheld beside your own fireplace on a cold snowy night. Do you really need to see the glow of a 3-500 in a desktop linear ?
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Okay, I tried to keep to my life philosophy of 'lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.'
............ (Confucius ?)
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So you sign that nasty, restrictive HOA contract- life dealt you a basket full of lemons- So Cowboy Up- go out and make some lemonade - Stop whining to the Feds to undo your bad choice.
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Lauri
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___________________________________________________
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Once years ago a friend and I decided to enter a 160 metre 'phone contest on a moment's lark- we loaded the gutters about her campus dorm as our 'antenna'... and made a tonne of contacts- some over 600 miles...

 

[DaveNF2G]

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Okay, I tried to keep to my life philosophy of 'lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.'
............ (Confucius ?)

William L. Watkinson, 1907

 

[sneumann55]

not trying to add to fire, but i had to move to NC to take care of Mother, HOA area, had a vertical in yard for several years, but we were in the corner so really not visible, but one day the HOA president and i got into a heat discussion over parking , told her where to go, a few weeks later letter to remove the vertical, it was a ldg s9v31, green and blended in with tree's, but as many know or dont' know, the fcc lets you place a Over the air antennas as long as its not over 12 feet, no it is the law, and it also should be in most HOA by-laws, all you have to do is notify the board, well sent them a letter expaining that i was going to install a 5 foot mast with a rotor another 5 foot mast and a channel master directional antenna, sent them a link to the biggest one i could find and said i was sorry that i would be the only house to have a TV antenna on the roof out of 80 units. Shortly later a board member knocked on my door and said how can we work it out so there was no antenna on the roof as the board could not stop me, i said well i guess if i can put back up my vertical, i wouldn't need the roof antenna, i guess he was clueless about what the vertical was, but he agreed .
now i have a few acres in KY and put up whatever i like with no issues, sometimes you have to bargain.

 

[KK4JUG]

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Ahhh, cheer up Guys-- all's not lost ...there are plenty of options to contravene those covenants.
.
While its quite hopeless, if you ask me, that any sort of "Parity" will ever pass Congress- it doesn't mean one should sit in a darken'd room with a sack cloth pulled over their ash smeared body, wailing in misery.
.
If you want to get more creative, get together with some friends and do a remote HF station commanded over the internet, maybe with a UHF link-- think of the beauty in that-- just your lap top or a handheld beside your own fireplace on a cold snowy night. Do you really need to see the glow of a 3-500 in a desktop linear ?
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Lauri
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