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Re: [TowerTalk] Turnbuckle Vandalism

To: "Clint Talmadge" <unclebudd@bellsouth.net>,<towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Turnbuckle Vandalism
From: Jim Lux <jimlux@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:32:11 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
At 12:05 PM 10/9/2006, Clint Talmadge wrote:


>The following is the text on sign at the half way point on my 1200 foot drive:
>_____________________________________________________________________
>
>Warning!

<snip>

>___________________________________________________________________
>
>
>Nothing on the sign is an outright lie.  I suppose if someone were 
>to come onto my property and climb a tree under one of my dipoles, 
>while I was transmitting, he or she could actually exceed the 
>recommended levels.
>I explain the sign to those who have a legitimate reason to be here 
>such as the UPS driver and the meter readers and the like.  The rest 
>I explain the severity of RF exposure by equating it to a Microwave Oven.
>
>I believe the sign has kept quite a few from wandering up the dirt 
>road leading out into the woods to see what's up there.
>

There's actually a legal requirement for signage like this described 
in the OET bulletin, and, for that matter, an ANSI standard for what 
the sign should look like.  A lot of the legalities would revolve 
around what other access controls there are (for instance, if you had 
a 12 foot high double chain link fence with razor wire around your 
square mile of property where you live by yourself, you could 
probably claim that incidental public exposure isn't likely, so signs 
wouldn't be required)


The only problem is that such a sign might actually incur unwanted 
regulatory oversight.  Around here, putting up such a sign would be 
tantamount to a "Please call code enforcement to harass me" 
sign.  The unfortunate folks putting up a small FM broadcast station 
near here spent tens of thousands of dollars dealing with various and 
sundry hearings (after the project was approved) because they put the 
legally required signage on the perimeter fence, which went near a 
popular walking, mountain biking, riding trail.

There's also the "signs as shooting targets" problem (why explosives 
magazines don't have signs on their sides), but that's just a matter 
of proper placement (i.e. not on the guy wire)

There are examples of signs in various places:
Tessco 
catalog:http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProducts.do?groupId=583&subgroupId=14


You'd have to decide whether the blue "notice" style signs or the 
Yellow "WARNING" signs would be more effective in the tradeoff 
between attracting unwanted attention vs keeping people out.

Jim, W6RMK 


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