Towers near airports (W1PH)

Mon Mar 18 20:25:29 EST 1996

And don't UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ask the FAA directly for an OK or ruling on 
a proposed tower.  If you live near an airport, read the portion of FCC Part 
97 dealing with airports to see if you need to worry.  If yes, you or your 
attorney should contact ARRL for information.  If the FAA overreacts (and 
over reaches its authority, which it has done in the past) it will be nearly 
impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.

Since the Hartford CT area airport is partly in my town, the town originally 
asked me to get an FAA OK before granting me a building permit for my first 
tower.  No matter that the airport is about 8 miles away and there are hills 
300' higher than me in that direction (SE).  In the end, they were satisfied 
with a letter that explained to them what the FCC rules were and that I was 
in compliance (was too far away to worry).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: frenaye at pcnet.com  
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box 386, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

>From barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner)  Tue Mar 19 01:55:12 1996
From: barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner) (Barry Kutner)
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 96 01:55:12 GMT
Subject: Alpha meter bulbs?
Message-ID: <PuL1kD1w165w at w2up.wells.com>

Does anyone know what kind of bulb (and where to find it) lights the 
meter in an Alpha 78 (or similar contest amp)?
Tnx/Barry

--

Barry N. Kutner, W2UP       Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
Newtown, PA                 Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
                            Packet Cluster: W2UP >WB2R (FRC)
.......................................................................

>From steven at zianet.com (Steve Nace KN5H)  Tue Mar 19 02:34:03 1996
From: steven at zianet.com (Steve Nace KN5H) (Steve Nace KN5H)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 19:34:03 -0700
Subject: NY Times ham article (was Death of Ham Radio)
Message-ID: <01340383400462 at zianet.com>

Try this, it might get you there without subscribing:

http://www.nytimes.com/web/docsroot/library/cyber/techcol/0318techcol.html

>You will enjoy reading the NY Times article referenced below.  And you can
>read it by subscribing to  'www.nytimes.com'.  There is no $ cost...at the
>moment.  The article has a nice 'Jeeves' type cartoon.
>
>Paul, K3ZZ
> 
>>
>> A particularly erudite column appeared in the Monday New York Times
>>(Business section, 
>>Page D5) by Ed Rothstein entitled, "Reports of the computer-assisted death 
>>of ham radio may be greatly exaggerated..."

>From Dave Greig <n3buo at ix.netcom.com>  Tue Mar 19 02:31:48 1996
From: Dave Greig <n3buo at ix.netcom.com> (Dave Greig)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 20:31:48 -0600
Subject: WPX Contest help
Message-ID: <314E1C94.60FB at ix.netcom.com>

I ahve read and reread the rules and I do not see anything about how a 
station should sign if they are out of their home call area. My call is 
N3BUO and I live in the Dallas area. Can I sign as KM5/N3BUO since this 
is a rare prefix or do have to sign N3BUO/5? Thank You for your help

Dave N3BUO

>From John Brosnahan <broz at csn.net>  Tue Mar 19 03:27:11 1996
From: John Brosnahan <broz at csn.net> (John Brosnahan)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 20:27:11 -0700
Subject: Towers near airports (W1PH)
Message-ID: <199603190327.UAA12870 at lynx.csn.net>

At 08:25 PM 3/18/96 PST, you wrote:
>
>And don't UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ask the FAA 
>directly for an OK or ruling on a proposed tower.  

>Tom Frenaye, K1KI

Tom, I had to file FAA paperwork since I am only 3 miles from
a crop duster's landing strip, which, unfortunately, is in the
Airman's Guide.  The FAA was slow, inept, and incompetent.

They lost my paperwork, and then tried to rule based on
not looking at the replacement. They weren't familiar
with any of my submitted drawings, plots, and spread sheet data.
They said that they didn't care about the crop duster's strip, 
but since I had filed anyway there was concern about the traffic 
from the Greeley airport, approximately 12 miles away (to justify
their initial ruling for paint and lights).  (I am about 200 ft higher 
in elevation).  This went on for a couple of years in slow motion.  
Finally got them to agree to allow me to go 
187ft above the average elevation of the four high points on the
property, without lighting or painting.  Which allowed me to 
construct my 200 ft towers in the low areas, and save the high
points for smaller towers and utility poles.

After discussing the issue with local crop dusters, who BTW
don't maintain their required altitudes, I decided to paint the
towers anyway.  No one flies low at night but the crop dusters
fly very low during the day, and aged galvanized steel is the
same color as sage brush out here.  The unpainted towers 
were very obvious when viewed from the ground against the
sky, but from the air they disappeared into the sagebrush
background.

The best news is that the 185ft tower next to the house
has resulted in the local crop duster not flying directly over
the house at sunrise on Sunday mornings in the summer.

So, I totally concur.  Try to keep the FAA out of the picture 
if at all possible.  Otherwise you will get to experience the 
essence of bureaucratic bumbling, IMHO.

73 John  W0UN

John Brosnahan  
La Salle Research Corp      24115 WCR 40     La Salle, CO 80645  USA
voice 970-284-6602            fax 970-284-0979           email broz at csn.net

>From n3rr at cais.cais.com (Bill Hider)  Tue Mar 19 03:38:55 1996
From: n3rr at cais.cais.com (Bill Hider) (Bill Hider)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 22:38:55 -0500
Subject: EWE Antennas...
Message-ID: <199603190338.WAA00378 at cais.cais.com>

Walt, I used the fence RAILS!!  I drilled holes 38 feet apart in the top
fence rail (approximately 3 ft above the ground), inserted a 12 ft aluminum
tube into each hole, attached stainless steel hose clamps to the tubes above
and below the rail, attached the 3 ft wire to the bottom of the tube, ran
the wire to the ZJ box and to the terminating resistor (both connecting to
their respective 4 ft ground stake), connected the coax, and vollah!  

The two tubes for each antenna were connected together at the top via a 38ft
long piece of antenna wire (#13 insulated from Wireman).

I tried both 3/8" and 1/2" tubes.  Too much wind for the 3/8" tubes, use 1/2".

I did guy the ends of the tubes to the rails so that the 38 ft antenna wire
was taught.

Simple!! Each antenna took about 2 hours to build and install and test!!!

73!

Bill, N3RR at CAIS.COM

>At 10:22 AM 3/18/96 -0500, Walt Kornienko wrote:
>Hi Bill,
>
>Thanx for the fence idea. I have a 400' perimeter fence enclosing
>my swimming pool area and may try a EWE using the fenceposts as
>pole supports.  It seems simple enough to do, for sure.
>
>*****************************************************************
>*                                                               *
>*              73 de Walt Kornienko - K2WK (FRC)                *
>*        k2wk at crystal.palace.net  or  K2WK at N2ERH.NJ.NOAM        *
>*                                                               *
>*****************************************************************
>

>From David L. Thompson" <thompson at mindspring.com  Tue Mar 19 03:53:14 1996
From: David L. Thompson" <thompson at mindspring.com (David L. Thompson)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 22:53:14 -0500
Subject: PQ0MM location
Message-ID: <199603190345.WAA08228 at borg.mindspring.com>

>Anyone know where PQ0MM really was during the
>ARRL DX phone test?
>
>Thanks,
>
>John  W0UN
>
PQ0MM is Brazil.

Dave K4JRB