[TowerTalk] RF exposure and my neighbor

[Tom Anderson]

Todd:

Years ago there was a ham a couple blocks from my old QTH in the 
Dallas/Fort Worth area that had some irate neighbors who didn't like his 
tower.  They started complaining to the city and any one who would 
listen.  Neighbors alleged that the "interference" the ham was creating 
was interfering with their cordless phones, garage door openers, sex 
life of their Sea Monkeys, etc.  and almost anything you could imagine 
to inflame their neighborhood.  I was in this ham's home several times 
and the only problem with the neighbors' argument was none of the coax 
he had running from the tower inside the house even had a PL-259 or an 
N-connector attached.  In fact the end of the coax wasn't even prepared 
to attach either connector.  The ham just put up the tower (a Rohn BX 40 
series), but never connected any radio to it. These neighbors got things 
so riled up in town that they persuaded the city to enact a tower 
ordinance and an annual inspection.

Most of the ringleaders in this thing had cordless phones that operated 
on 49 mHz and in the low end of the 160 meter band.  The ham just used a 
short 20 ft. piece of copper wire on the floor hooked up to his ICOM 
general coverage receiver and was able to hear all of their strategy, 
threats, etc.  which he taped in case they actually carried out any of 
the threats.

But the hams did get some pleasure out of this 1. all but one ham tower 
inspected by a professional tower company engineer hired by the city was 
ruled in compliance with all building and safety codes with a couple 
minor problems. 2. The city's fire and police radio tower (the city also 
inspected all radio towers in the city not just hams) was grossly 
overloaded with antennas, and 3. the inspection showed that the school 
district's radio tower was in imminent danger of collapse.

This whole inspection thing got to be such a headache, bother and 
bookkeeping problem for the city that the new mayor got the council to 
rescind most of the ordinance a couple years later.  The city did keep 
its 50 foot height limit because that was the highest most anyone could 
put up a tower because of setback requirements enacted long before the 
antenna fuss came about.

Also the ham and his XYL, and most of the neighbors who started the 
entire fuss ended up getting a divorce.  (true story).

Tom, WW5L



Todd Coulter wrote:
> Well, Jim Idelson K1IR was right on the money. After my discussion with
> my neighbor yesterday about the tower, and telling him that I would get
> him some information about it to put his fears at ease. I arrived home
> from work today to find a card from one of the building officials at the
> city on my door asking me to call him. He told me that some of my
> neighbors didn't like the way my tower looked and they also had
> questions about me transmitting with it. I took some information down to
> the city official which included the rf safety evaluations showing that
> I would be in compliance with the FCC guidelines, and also a paper that
> explained that rf from an amateur's antenna is relatively safe which I
> downloaded from the ARRL's website. The building official was very nice
> and said that I didn't have anything to worry about, and that he was
> only educating himself so that he could answer the complaints. I found
> out later that my neighbor called the City Attorney as well. (My
> neighbor is also an attorney) My neighbor also wants to get a local
> University to come out and take readings when I get the station going.
> Well we will see where this goes. I think I will severely limit my
> contact with my neighbor for now. Thanks for all of the advice.
>  
>  
>                                               Todd 
>                                               N4JRZ
>  
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