I am now completing a remote HF station after more than 11 years of
frustration in a highly restricted community. The following is my
experience and advice, in no particular order.
1. Do not allow yourself to be in a position where you need to ask
permission for an antenna. You will not get it. They will talk about how
reasonable they are, but in the end, they will always say no.
2. The only exception to the above is when the developer is still
functioning as the HOA/Architectural Control Committee. Make your offer to
purchase the house contingent upon approval to do an antenna.
3. If you do ask permission, you will get looked at for everything else on
your property. I had a little G5RV in the trees about 12 feet off the
ground for more than 9 years. No one ever noticed it. I applied to the
ACC for permission to put up a retractable mast with a small tribander on
it, which would be cranked down when not in use. I was denied permission
to erect the new antenna. Shortly thereafter, I received a certified
letter informing me that I must take down my "offensive wire antenna".
4. You may be able to forestall the changes by using the FUD (Fear,
Uncertainty, Doubt) method by suggesting that changing the rules could
result in legal bills and/or liability for the homeowners individually or
for the association collectively, where as leaving things as they are is a
low cost "safe harbor".
5. Even if the rules are changed, existing antennas should be
"grandfathered". So put it up now if you can.
6. When I asked permission to put up an antenna, several neighbors told the
board members that if they voted in favor of my request, they would sue the
board members individually.
7. Your fellow hams will not help you. One "brother ham" and fellow
subdivision resident, a lapsed technician, told the board members that you
didn't need outdoor antennas to operate a ham radio, and that TVI on HF was
so bad that no matter how far away the antenna was from the TV, the
interference could not be reduced or eliminated by any means.
8. Association rules must accommodate on the air TV reception, DSS type
dishes, and MMDS antennas. In a strong signal area (such as mine) the
association can require in the attic antennas for local TV reception. They
can ask that the DSS dishes be in the backyard if a decent signal can be
received there. They cannot limit MMDS antennas to less than 12' mast
mounting above the roof line. The guy wires could form a "stealth" dipole
perhaps?
9. Most members of the HOA are nice people who are totally and blissfully
ignorant about the FCC much less PRB-1 or other such esoteric concepts.
They believe that restrictive covenants are "contracts between
individuals" that "the government can't change them. It will cost you many
$ of legal talent to explain things to them. They will still not
understand. They will still say no. Most attorneys will advise you,
correctly, that you could be legally correct, yet spend kilobucks without
ever getting any result.
10. Every minute and dollar you spend on fighting these issues is lost
forever and therefore not available to be used somewhere where you can
actually do antennas.
11. You will soon be chastised for posting this on the TowerTalk reflector,
instead of the Hamlaw reflector.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Perring [SMTP:perring@texas.net]
Sent: Monday, March 30, 1998 10:02 AM
To: biekert@swbell.net; tdxs-list@n5uh.tech.uh.edu; reginfo@arrl.org;
n5tc@arrl.org; wb5jbp@arrl.org; towertalk@contesting.com; K1ZZ@arrl.org;
tommy@oddo.com; mperring@kba.net
Subject: [TowerTalk] Subdivision Deed restrictions
I am on the board of my Ashford West (Houston, Texas) subdivision.
SNIP
I invite responses from you of a general or specific nature that might
better equip me with the proper ammunition for my obvious position on
this issue.
73,
N5RP
Bob Perring
12715 Westmere
Houston, Texas 77077
tele: (281) 493-5780
fax: (281) 493-5780
Std e-mail: perring@texas.net
Int'l e-mail: N5RP@compuserve.com
<underline><color><param>0000,0000,ffff</param>http://perring.home.texas
.net</color></underline>
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/towertalkfaq.html
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
Search: http://www.contesting.com/km9p/search
|