Al, KE1FO, said:
>>What do people think, should we be concerned?<<
Hi Al:
I think we should be concerned if this results in anti-tower ordinances
replacing ham friendly ordinances.
In Omaha, NE like many other places in the USA, the 2 GHz PCS (read "new
digital cellular system") folks want to build out a system overnight. Instead
of only 1 or 2 cellular systems there will soon be 4 or 5 in each community.
Each requires tower space and none want to let their competitors onto their
towers. After all, they worked hard to get prime cell sites into place over
the last 10 years. In Omaha last year, the PCS company, Sprint Spectrum,
asked for over 12-15 or more new tower sites per month until a "moratorium"
was placed on new commercial tower requests. I think the moratorium was
intended to slow down the PCS build out until the planners could figure out
how to handle this mess.
We're trying to ensure that this won't impact Amateur towers. During the last
couple years, some members of our radio club have rewritten the ordinance that
pertains to Amateur Radio towers. We are trying to increase the maximum
allowable height for Amateur Towers from 43ft 9 inches (25% over the 35 ft
limit for non-hams) to a 70 ft maximum. We were told to provide the rewritten
ordinance, and it would then be considered for incorporation into a "Master
Plan" rewrite which is still in progress and has been for over a year now.
When it comes up for approval, we are planning on packing the hearing with
hams and public service officials to ensure we get it approved.
Instead of sitting back and worrying about the anti-tower fever sweeping the
nation, we need to become proactive and start asking for higher tower limits
where ever we can.
Just a few of my thoughts on the subject. Hope this gets some others thinking
in the same direction.
73,
de ed
-.-. --.- -.. -..- -.-. --.- -.. . -.- ----- .. .-.. -.-
Eddie Jay Edwards E-mail: ejedwards@oppd.gov
P.O. Box 375 Amateur Radio Call: K0IL
Elkhorn, NE 68022-0375 AK-SAR-BEN ARC Past-President, 1996
Visit Ak-Sar-Ben ARC home page at URL> http://www.probe.net/~aarc
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