[BULK] - Re: RE: [BULK] - [TowerTalk] CC&Rs

[Jim Lux]

At 11:10 AM 3/25/2004 -0800, Steve Katz wrote:
>Maybe someone has tried that and succeeded, but I haven't heard or read
>about it.
>
>However, locally several individuals pressed the OTARD rule as hard as they
>could and the general results were worded something like this (for the L.A.
>area):
>
>"We allow DBS (18") satellite dishes outdoors, facing south-southeast and
>aimed approximately 25 degrees above horizon.  If you elect to receive
>off-the-air signals directly broadcast not via satellite, you may do so
>using a suitable indoor antenna, the existing homeowners Community Antenna
>(if one exists), or an approved outdoor antenna not measuring greater than
>72" x 100" (length by width), aimed towards Mount Wilson."
>
>Thus, effectively denying anything that doesn't look and measure like a TV
>antenna, or an 18" dish.  And completely in accordance with OTARD rules.
>
>If others, in different areas, have other information, I'd like to hear
>about it, as I'm compiling a national survey of sorts on this very subject.
>
>-WB2WIK/6



I think that this rule wouldn't pass the OTARD check, if someone pushed 
it.  The word "approved" is in there, and the FCC was pretty clear that 
"approved" would have to be defined awfully loosely.  Also, for 
conventional broadcast TV, there is NO size limit, so the 72x100" limit is, 
on its face, not in compliance with OTARD.

A specific siting or aiming restriction (e.g. "towards Mt. Wilson") would 
have to be shown that it doesn't materially impair reception (in a strong 
signal area, your best signal may in fact be a bounce path, and, of course, 
there's multipath to consider). There ARE also TV stations in Los Angeles 
that are NOT on Mt. Wilson.  Lots of them, in fact.  They way the rules are 
written, you could put up your antenna, any old way, and they'd have to 
prove that their alternate approach would be better (or, at least, no 
worse) before they could make you change, and they have to give you some 
amount of time (30-45 days?) to make the changes (at their expense).

I suppose a particularly obsessive HOA could hire an engineer with 
appropriate equipment and credentials to come out and do a site survey and 
have good backup for a restrictive siting/aiming rule, but it strikes me as 
unlikely.  The case here is the one in Maryland or Virginia, where the HOA 
tried to make the guy put the antenna in his attic.

There's also no limit on the number of antennas you can put up.  There's an 
actual case where someone had 5 dishes, 3 masts, a whole raft of other 
stuff, and the FCC beat the HOA down.