[TowerTalk] Happy news for a change

[Bruce Jungwirth]

As a Ham Radio Operator, I wrote the Tower Ordinance here in Scandia, MN. in 
1998 ( then a Township, now a City). What they had then was a re-write of 
Washington County's ordinance. What a joke that was. You could tell that it 
was written by a Cell phone company or consultant. Everything in it 
pertained to cell towers & antennas. There were no restrictions for anything 
under 35 feet. Anything over required a Conditional Use Permit. -- cost $150 
to $500. Antennas could not extend more then 15 feet above the top of the 
tower. If the antenna was to be higher then the highest point of a building, 
like the chimney, then you would need a CUP. How would you like to pay $150 
to 500 to put up a $40 TV antenna on your house, on a 3 foot tripod, because 
you don't have a chimney, but you could put up a dish antenna on the ground, 
as long as the top of it was less then 35 feet above ground, with no 
restrictions & no CUP. That's about a 10 meter dish. And the biggest joke 
was they tried to restrict the coverage area to portions of the County. 
(city/county FCC ?) NO way. When did they write C.F.R. 47 ?
Any way, in the portion of the ordinance that covers Amateur Radio Towers, I 
have no defined height restriction in the ordinance, no CUP needed, the 
tower is to be setback as far as possible from the nearest property line, 
guy anchors can be as close as 1 foot to the property line,the tower must be 
installed in accordance with the manufacturers specs & instructions, and, 
this portion of the ordinance is applicable only to federally licensed 
amateur radio operators.
Oh, by the way, I took out the need for the CUP for the TV antenna on the 
roof of the house and a lot of the other junk that they didn't realize was 
in there or had no authority to regulate.

Just my 2 cents.

Bruce K0SON
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BRENT BAUM" <brentbaum5323 at msn.com>
To: "Kelly Johnson" <n6kj.kelly at gmail.com>; <cpwendling at yahoo.com>
Cc: <towertalk at contesting.com>; "Richards" <jruing at ameritech.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 1:20 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Happy news for a change


> Good deal for K8JHR. The small Utah town I live in requires a permit for 
> the tower foundation, everything else is unrestricted. Guess it helps to 
> have a former ham in the building ordinance department. Our county and 
> state are similarly unrestricted.
> 73, K7MEI
>
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:27 -0700> From: n6kj.kelly at gmail.com> To: 
>> cpwendling at yahoo.com> CC: TowerTalk at contesting.com; jruing at ameritech.net> 
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Happy news for a change> > 55 ft seems to be a 
>> common number all around the country. It's> probably just like 
>> boilerplate zoning ordinances and boilerplate> CC&Rs. Someone picked that 
>> number long ago and others just followed> suit. I could point to a 
>> handful of cities in my area with 55 ft.> limits. I'm fortunate that my 
>> city actually had a ham help craft> their ordinance and thus we DO have a 
>> 65 ft limit instead of 55.> > > On 8/12/08, Chris Wendling 
>> <cpwendling at yahoo.com> wrote:> > Just curious as to why 55 ft was chosen. 
>> Seems like 65ft (about 1 wavelength on 20m)> >> > which would allow a 
>> good low angle radiation pattern on 14Mhz, would be> > better for hams. I 
>> wonder if they thought about reasonable ham> > requirements for emergency 
>> communications, etc. when they picked that> > number?> >> >> >> > CW-A
> I4MI> >> > --- On Tue, 8/12/08, Richards <jruing at ameritech.net> wrote:> > 
> From: Richards <jruing at ameritech.net>> > Subject: [TowerTalk] Happy news 
> for a change> > To: TowerTalk at contesting.com> > Date: Tuesday, August 12, 
> 2008, 11:19 AM> >> > Greetings TowerTalkians => >> > Good news and bad 
> news:> >> > The Good News... my city allows towers and> > antennas, and 
> there are NO PERMITS and> > NO INSPECTIONS !!> >> > The Bad News is there 
> is a limit of 55 feet.> >> > Fortunately, that suits my plans and my 
> budget, so I do not> > have to fight City Hall to get permission go 
> higher.> > At least not yet...> >> > So... up to a height of 55 feet, it 
> is, essentially, unregulated.> > Cool, eh? Can ya dig it? Unbelievable.> 
>  >> > [I figure you guys might understand my glee...picture me> > giggling 
> a dirty-old-man-kind-of-laugh under my breath all> > day like I know a 
> dirty little secret no else knows... ;-)> >> > =========== Richards --  
> K8JHR ================> >> > _______________________
> ________________________> >> >> >> > 
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