Sorry to take this long to write. A phone call would be a lot easier...and I
could tell you some stuff I will never put to a permanent medium. I have posted
this to towertalk because it seems a recurring question.
Just for starters... If you do this...
Access will be required to the site 24 hours a day by people you don't know. If
there's not separate access, the extra traffic can destroy the road which you
will have to repair at your cost. If you don't keep it open you can be held
liable for incidental damages due to lack of access. Fact that you are a private
person no longer brings any sympathy. You're a party to a commercial enterprise.
When stuff doesn't work in the shed, they will knock on your door. Sometimes
just to ask to use your bathroom, or place a phone call because their cellphone
has lost charge. Discuss this and the prior paragraph with the wife. See if the
arrangement is in her comfort zone.
If your ham operation seems to cause them trouble, they will be all over you.
The reciprocal does not apply. If their stuff is bothering you, you will have to
pull teeth to get anything done. Your stuff will be the automatic reason for
whatever goes wrong because of their poor maintenance.
If someone is hurt on the tower, you can guarantee that you will be named in any
law suit. You will have to spend your money to get out from under.
Your home insurance company will drop you as soon as they find out you're
renting space on your property. Your bill will go up anywhere from 3 to ten
times, because of the greater risk of being named in a law suit, in the
COMMERCIAL insurance you will have to carry. Check this out with your State Farm
agent. If he comes up blurting roses and sure it's OK, BE SURE you get the
ruling from their internal underwriter IN WRITING. Take along a video camera to
record the song and dance.
If your tower gets blown down you will wind up having to prove that it wasn't
your faulty design and construction. Probably in court. Their monetary damages
are your fault. A hold harmless clause may save you, IN COURT, but you will
still have to pay a lawyer from your money to do it. (Don't even THINK of
representing yourself.)
It does not matter who the person on the other end of this deal is, and how
great a guy he is. The company can be sold and you can then be dealing with your
worst nightmare. Your agreement is with the company, not the nice person.
What I have told you is just the tip of the iceberg. Unless you have dealt with
the public and the radio business in general, you probably won't believe some of
the stories I could tell you.
The only way to really deal with something like this is to subdivide your
property. Form a corporation. Sell the property to the corporation, including
actual access (not right of way) to the main road. Let the corporation build the
tower, shelter, run power, build the road, etc. Get the small business
administration to help you lay out the business and legal aspects.
Put a BIG fence between your place and the corporation's property. Make sure
you, personally, are a hidden partner, so they won't get this idea they can ask
to use your bathroom.
Lease the space, tower, and especially power. Put an ironclad radio-worthiness
clause in the lease so you can LEGALLY pull the power on the service if they
don't keep it up. Do NOT lease to any government agency no matter HOW much money
they offer. Do it and you are possibly at the hands of idiotic appointees that
know nothing about radio. Further, you can almost never beat the government in
court, and they can put you in jail.
BUT, before you do this, have a real lawyer and accountant cost this out and see
what you would have to charge.
Then compare that with what whoever is offering you for space on your tower. See
if they aren't trying to get space and elevation at far less than what it really
and normally costs on the open market. Project your chances of a smooth
operation from a skinflint company that's trying to maximize it's profit by
putting commercial radio on ham towers, and in so doing, place their customer's
interests at risk.
Rent space in your backyard, and if it goes sour, the only way you may be able
to get away is to move, and you may have a legal judgement against you as a lien
on your sale of the house.
"If'n you'd been in that swamp liken me, you'da never go in thar 'cept wid
hip-waders and a loaded rifle."
Trust me, it's a swamp.
- - . . . . . . - - . . . . - - . . - . .
73, Guy
k2av@contesting.com
Apex, NC, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Curtis, David B <david.b.curtis@intel.com>
To: Guy Olinger, K2AV <k2av@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 4:10 PM
Subject: RE: [TowerTalk] Do you rent tower space to commercial operators?
Hi Guy,
Sounds ominous... Bad in what way? Financially? Personal safety?
-dave
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