MA40 Part V (Say What!)

[Joe Spinosa]

I've been thrown a real curve here in the 11th hour.

Today (11/13/96 -- 3 PM) I decided to call the building department of my town 
of Concord and start all over again.  After a few menu choices, I got to speak 
with a real person:

"Hi, my name is Joe Spinosa, can you tell me if I need a permit to put up an 
amateur radio antenna?"
Transfer to another person.  Repeat.
Transfer to another person.  Repeat.

Man's voice:  "An amateur radio antenna eh.  I think you are exempt.  How high 
are you going?"

Me:  "I'm thinking about one of these crank-up jobs, goes from about 12' 
cranked down to about 40' cranked up".

Man's voice:  "Oh, I think you may need a permit for that, let me check".
                                        ...On Hold...
Man's voice:  "We require a permit on the commercial users, but for 
residential I don't see anything."

Me:  "OK (pause), this thing will probably be cemented in the ground, does 
that make any difference?"

Man's voice:  "Like I say sir, I can't see anything listed here for 
residential use.  I think we exempted ham operators or something."

Me:  "OK, thank you very much."

For those of you following this thread, what do you make of this?

I knew I was being given the commercial end of the stick from the planning 
commission.  I'm beginning to think they didn't care about anything but the 
$2,640 fee.  I should have done this "starting over again" bit 2 months ago.

I called fully expecting to put back in the same boat I've been in for the 
past three months:  i.e. dealing with the planning commission.

This conversation stunned me so much that I forgot to ask for the guy's name.  
I don't think it would matter, if he is wrong he could deny the whole thing.  
It was only a telephone conversation.

Shall I call again tomorrow to see what that day brings, or quit while I'm 
ahead?

Personally, I've had enough of this game.  I think my time would be better 
spent with a shovel in hand, if you get my drift.  If I start construction, I 
will take the advice of many and photograph or video tape key steps for future 
reference.  Thanks for those suggestions.

My guess as to the key areas to photo would be:

1) The bare hole with ruler showing depth and width.

2) The hole with form and rebar installed (maybe a few rulers here too).

3) The assembled tower base plate with rulers lying next to anything that will 
be sunk into or covered by cement.

4)  Photo's right before and right after the cement pouring.

Anything else?

Unless, someone can see something wrong here, I'll be wrapping this thread up 
pretty soon.  Right now it looks like a happy ending.  Many lessons have been 
learned, and much anti-acid has been swallowed.

I'll post a wrap-up if anyone is interested.

Best Regards,
Joe Spinosa
KF6CWX
Concord, CA

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