[Towertalk] yagis in trees

[Michael Keane, K1MK]

At 04:48 PM 9/8/02, K7LXC@aol.com wrote:

>     But the biggest advantage of trees over towers is that trees are NOT
>REGULATED. There are virtually no ham-antenna-in-trees regulations in any
>building department in the whole country. You can't say that about towers,
>er...I mean antenna support structures.

While trees aren't covered by zoning or building regulations and there may 
be no specific rules governing ham-antenna-in-trees, it doesn't necessarily 
mean that placement of an antenna in a tree is something that would, in all 
cases, be totally unregulated.

The stories of homeowners who have been forced by their town to alter or 
remove their children's tree house because it is an unpermitted structure 
or violates some setback or height rule are not apocryphal. Such things 
have happened, probably in the exactly the same sort of jurisdictions that 
would give a tower installation much grief.

One reasonably common variant of what's covered under local zoning rules 
includes anything constructed or erected which is attached to something 
located on the ground... like a tree. In situations such as that, a zoning 
officer or building inspector could rule that the normal permit, setback 
and height regulations also apply to mounting a yagi in a tree.

YMMV, it all just depends. Remember, such rules and definitions are local, 
each situation is unique and one needs to check what rules actually apply 
in a specific case.

73,
Mike K1MK

Michael Keane, K1MK
k1mk@alum.mit.edu