[TowerTalk] Advice on tower restrictions possible new home purchase

[Bryan Swadener]

When I decided I was finally going to erect my first tower + big HF yagi, the first thing I did was to purchase and read Steve K7LCX's fine book "UP THE TOWER: The Complete Guide To Tower Construction". It answered most questions I had and some I didn't know I had. The only question it didn't answer was regarding personal liability. My homeowners insurance agent stated that I would be automatically covered if the installation complied with all zoning and permitting requirements. It was then that I decided to try to erect it according to the requirements. An email to my county building department furnished me with links to the relevant regulations and forms.
A couple of interesting things about my project...   
   - Some local hams suggested I just "put it up and dare the &^#$*# government to come after me". When I asked who would pay my fines, the silence was deafening.   

   - There are about 2K hams in my county and when I went to have my sit-down with the county representatives (one lady was a ham), they said that in 12 years, they couldn't recall a SINGLE request for a ham tower permit. That's scary.    


vy 73,Bryan WA7PRChttp://www.tinyurl.com/wa7prc-tower



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Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 15:34:44 -0500
From: K7LXC at aol.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Advice on tower restrictions possible new home purchase

>  I'm toying with the purchase of property in Kansas.
The  sight is plenty large enough for a tower or two.
But I've never done this  before.
The property is rural, in farm country.
What do I need to do to  assure no restrictions or hassles concerning
towers exist?
 
    Sounds like fun. I would certainly recommend my UP  THE TOWER book. 
It's got 2 chapters on the legal implications. championradio.com  for more 
info. 
 
But the first thing I would suggest is going to  city/county hall and 
getting a copy of the building regs. Then you'll know  EXACTLY what the 
building codes want. Of course this is in addition to any  CC&R's that apply. In 
the case of farm country in Kansas, it's probably a  non-issue.
 
The problem with asking the building department  questions is that they 
probably haven't encountered a tower application  before. And my experience 
has been that if you ask 3 people in the building  department for answers, 
you'll likely get 2-3 different answers. 
 
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH
and
Champion Radio Products
Cell: 206-890-4188