From:
Fred Hopengarten K1VR 617/259-0088
Six Willarch Road
Lincoln, MA 01773-5105
permanent e-mail address: fhopengarten@mba1972.hbs.edu
On Mon, 13 Oct 1997 00:34:18 -0500 Scott Neader KA9FOX <neader@QTH.com>
writes:
>Hi Jim:
>
>FYI, I received this e-mail on Saturday from a friend of mine who
>lives a
>block away from me:
>
>"Hey Scott, I had to let you know (if you don't already know) I was
>approached by someone in the neighborhood this morning to sign a
>petition
>that they are against the tower you're putting up. I told them I
>wasn't
>interested. Then this afternoon I got a call from a different
>neighbor
>saying that if that tower was built it would affect our TV, computers,
>microwaves, cordless phones, and property values.
In re petitions:
In the course of circulating petitions, all sorts of crazy claims will be
made against the ham. Later, you will not be easily able to document
those lies. In my experience, the best defense is to go door to door and
answer every question. EVERY question. Welcome to politics, son.
Practice your answers to the hard questions in advance.
Find out if property values went down elsewhere in town. Find out if
these things were experienced elsewhere in town when a ham antenna went
up. If it didn't happen elsewhere, why should it happen here?
You must get out and about to display to neighbors thatyou don't have
horns, and that you do have some science and common sense on your side.
Do your best to get the arguments into the realm of science and away from
aesthetics. But prepare an answer to the aesthetics question. Is WI
still enamored of property rights? Talk about freedom to use one's fee
simple absolute.
Or would this sell better: "Actually, I think of these things as
majestic. Think of it as a miniature Eiffel Tower. I wish it could be
bigger to convey the same sense of pride in it that the Parisians have
for their tower, but it is the most I could afford." (Another "wry smile"
line.)
The above craziness about microwaves, cordless phones and so forth is
best answered by the r squared law. "You know how a flashlight beam
spreads out and gets dimmer as it covers a wider area? The same thing
happens with radio waves and light waves. The intensity decreases as the
square of the distance. Putting it another way, if any of this nonsense
were true, you'd much rather have my antennas half a mile up in the sky
than down at tree height. Aren't you ready to believe that you'd be
better off if my antennas were half a mile away? (Pause for smile to
appear on face of listener.) Well, then certainly you are better off if
my antennas are up 80 feet than if they are up 20 feet and right next to
your house. Besides that, the antennas will look smaller up higher."
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