[TowerTalk] Tower regulatory climate in Fort Collins - Loveland, CO area

[Tom Anderson]

Dave:

Having moved from another Texas city in 1992 that
enacted a tower ordinance a couple years before, I had
my Realtor get me a copy of the deed abstract on our
current QTH from the County Clerk's office (or similar
office in other jurisdictions)before I made an offer. 
Also I had the Realtor put in our offer that there
were no HOA's, no deed restrictions or anything else
that would interfere with my XYL Cheryl (WY5H) and I
putting up a crank up tower.  The then owner signed it
and we've lived here since 1992.

One thing my XYL did back then was to drive through a
number of neighborhoods we were looking at and any
that had the then "huge" 15+ foot satellite dishes
back then in the backyards, we figured we might be
safe, but we still took no chances.

I even went up to city hall and visited with the
city's then code enforcement officer and told him what
I was doing in putting up a TriEx W51 crankup.  I
lucked out, his son was a ham, and the only complaint
I ever had was one RFI complaint from him. 

I sent him a letter asking him to please check with
the complainant about when the alleged RFI occurred
and I would be more than glad to check my log and even
send him a copy, to prove I was or wasn't on the air
at the time.  This was due to the fact there are two
other hams within a block of where we live. Never
heard from the city again.

I figure the complaint came from the neighors in back
of us who called us repeatedly and said our tower was
causing lighting to hit their house.  Never mind the
fact their backyard is filled with live oak trees
taller than my tower, that I'm sure attract lightning
as much or more than my single tower (according to one
of Polyphaser's techs), which is grounded per NEC
codes.  They once called me late one night in the
middle of a raging thunderstorm with lightning like
crazy and asked if I was going outside to lower my
tower.  I told them if they wanted it lowered in the
middle of a thunder and lightning storm they could
come over and lower it themselves since I wasn't going
out to do it.  I had everything disconnected in the
shack at the time.

Of course it was perfectly all right (to them) when
their swimming pool filter stopped up and flooded my
backyard several times turning it into a swamp and I
shouldn't be concerned.

We have a 50 foot limit, but I don't think the city
has ever enforced it since there are ham towers all
over town higher.  My W51 does fine, plus I've got a
2m/440 on top of it also so I'm slightly above the
"limit". 

73 de Tom, WW5L