[TowerTalk] Re: Upcoming Compliance

[Ward Silver]

On Fri, 14 Nov 1997, Roderick M. Fitz-Randolph wrote:

> (1)  "Problem areas seem to be mostly lowband dipoles low to the ground..."
> 
>      That pretty much does away with 80 meter delta loops whose base leg
>      is in proximity to the ground that places it out of compliance.  It
>      also does away with "Cloud Warmers" for contesting.

Only if the wire is VERY CLOSE to uncontrolled exposures - which
translates to "don't put it up over your neighbor's property"...I think
the recommended separations were on the order of 10-20 feet (going from
memory here, don't take this as gospel) when running high-power.  A
back-yard dipole, well away from your property lines will probably be
comfortably within the exposure limits.  

If your antenna is a "stealth"  wire and you're running high-power, then
you might want to reconsider.  Of course, in this situation, you're
probably lighting up everything in the house and the spousal disapproval
is more formidable than any possible governmental trouble. 

> (2)  "HF antennas mounted at reasonable heights are nowhere near exceeding
>      exposure limits even at full power".
> 
>      What's "reasonable heights"... this year?... next year?.. 10 years?
> 

Thirty feet gets you out of the zone of concern in nearly all cases.

The point about un-founded concerns is something to think about, of
course.  The real problem that is completely unaddressed is that of
cellular phones.  However, all the research has failed to turn up anything
at all definite.

My point in bringing all this up was not to get into a huge discussion of
what is and isn't in compliance. (Actually, hams have ALWAYS been liable
for compliance with exposure limts, it's just that the limits are
changing.)  The comments were made only to say, "The ARRL has a team
working on it and an excellent guide to making your evaluations will be
made available shortly."  Also, from what I've seen, the vast majority of
installations are comfortably within the exposure limits.

73, Ward N0AX


--
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