[TowerTalk] Chicago Tribune: Antenna Stirs Static Among Neighbors from N0AH

[Dinsterdog at aol.com]

In 1998, I moved to 160 acres in rural Wyoming to pursue my goals in ham 
radio.  Primarily, to earn my 5BDXCC and 5BWAZ while diving into low band 
sciences.  I needed a ton of room and an RF quiet area.  For 5 years, it was a blast 
and I have my awards, but now I'm back in suburban Denver with my Gap Titan. 

 Complaining neighbors suck if you are serious about the hobby.  So I said 
F-it and moved where I could enjoy it- 100 miles due north th the SE corner of 
Wyoming-  I know not everybody can pick up and live in rural America...I have a 
internet company so it was no big deal.  But I do think as Hams, we have to 
consider our neighbors.  Cure 98% of their RFI, the remaining 2% becomes 100% 
of a problem again-

  But balance it out with reasonable installations and power will be better 
for all of us in the long run.  I say if you want three towers etc.....you need 
some more room- I'm not siding with the neighbors, but their is a sense of 
reasonable compromise missing here-   By the way, my new house is 4,200 sq feet 
built in 1996 with no covenants- This is a rather decent neighborhood where 
99% of homes are in covenants- But I can put up what ever I want as long as it's 
5 feet back from my property line- My street was developed a few months after 
the developers moved out- I was lucky-

  I can empathize but when it comes down to it- We all need to realize that 
if you really want to achieve goals in this hobby, you need better real estate 
than you can find in suburban areas- Instead of spending 25K on legal fees, I 
would have used it to buy some land as close as possible as far away as 
possible from neighbors- Sounds simple eh?  Not really.  My endeavors most likely 
cost me over $100k in lost time, opportunity costs for the move, etc....but you 
know, some awards/QSO's are priceless-

 On my last morning in Wyoming, for the first time, I work mainland Asia on 
160 Meters with a HL station and Nepal on 80M with my 4 sqr- I felt the DX Gods 
were saying "we appreciate your whacko interest in our hobby, but its time to 
get back to reality now"

Now my gear sits in the corner of a very nice custom installation collecting 
dust- what happened?  I'm fried out on contesting due to software failures 
etc......and I worked everything that was on from 1998-2001.  Climb the mountain, 
and the view is never the same-  But power on to those of you still reaching 
for your goals!   Carma will come through even in bad conditions- 

But my point in all of this is be reasonable- You don't go firing off guns in 
a populated area as one ham used to metphorize this- and three 90 foot towers 
in a back yard seems bent on delusion.............as was my move to Wyoming!  
This topic has to have set some sort of tower talk record-

73  Paul  N0AH