Ham Radio Noxious/Offensive?

[Kris Mraz]

The is a deed restriction question which may impact my contesting activities.

Has anyone had experience with deed restrictions with the following wording?

"No noxious or offensive trade or activity shall be carried out in the
subdivision, nor shall anything be done therin which may be or become a
nuisance to the neighborhood."

While there are no other restrictions pertaining to antennas, antenna
height, etc., this one restriction looks like a catchall that could be
applied to any radio activity the the neighbors don't like. For instance, if
a neighbor experiences TVI they could invoke this restriction just by
defining it as a nuisance.

Would the FCC's authority override any such restriction as applied to radio
transmissions, thus making it null and void?

Comments appreciated.

Kris, AA5UO
mraz at aud.alcatel.com


>From Peter Hardie <hardie at herald.usask.ca>  Mon Apr 19 23:52:35 1993
From: Peter Hardie <hardie at herald.usask.ca> (Peter Hardie)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 16:52:35 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Ham Radio Noxious/Offensive?
In-Reply-To: <9304192056.AA12842 at maverick.aud.alcatel.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.04.9304191644.A19285-a100000 at herald.usask.ca>

The well-known case of Jack Ravenscroft (VE3SR?) here in Canada may be
illustrative. He was sued by his neighbours for nuisance over alleged
interference with various appliances in their home. They played a tape in
court of some of the offending "interference". It had all the CW ops in
court laughing because the callsign clearly belonged to another ham who lived
nearby. Despite this, the end result was that the court ordered him to cease
all transmissions, found for the plaintiffs and I believe Jack was
required to pay their costs as well as his own. The whole thing was
appealed of course but it didn't do much good because Jack died.  
Don't expect help from the FCC. They do not necessarily have the power to
preempt this kind of case.
(ANY opinions expressed herein are derived from my faulty memory and are not
necessarily shared by anyone else in the known universe).
Pete hardie at herald.usask.ca  VE5VA