[CTSARA] Fwd: Cool: Ham Radio Antenna Bill:

[Chris- KB1QXR]

One thought when dealing with congress-

A change.org petition is nice, but even if the goal of 1500 people sign it,
this has limited impact on any particular congressperson because many or
most of those people may not be in the congressperson's district and thus
cannot vote for said congressperson.  Put differently- if I'm a
representative from Connecticut, I'm not terribly interested in something
Texans care about unless Connecticut residents also care about it.  And
neither me nor my staff will have time to sort through the list of
signatures to see if any are from CT.  So if the bill isn't on my
legislative agenda and I can't trade a vote with someone else over it, I
will probably ignore it.


So if you care about this issue, sign the petition sure.  But more
importantly, contact your congressperson directly.  You can find their info
using this site:
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Note that as a House bill, you most want to contact (write or call) your
Representative, who has the most direct access to this bill.

Most people who care about an issue will never speak up about it.  So for
everyone who signs an online petition, X people must care, for everyone who
writes in, Y people must care, and if someone actually calls on the phone,
they must be really pissed off so a whole LOT of people must care about it.
Point is- writing or calling have much more effect.


When making such contacts, shorter is better.  You don't need to make a
large argument, just get your voice counted.  Simply explain that you're an
FCC-licensed ham radio operator, and in times of emergency like Hurricane
Katrina, ham radio provides essential communications, which requires
antennas.  This bill would help ensure the ability of hams to have their
antennas, and you therefore fully support the bill and encourage the
Representative to co-sponsor the bill and vote in favor of it.  That's it.  

Skip the long speech about the evils of CC&Rs, or how heroic ham radio
operators make a habit of rescuing starving disabled orphan puppies, or how
you made lots of QSOs on Field Day.  They don't care.  What matters is 1.
Why the bill matters to you, 2. That you support it, 3. That's it.


If you write, expect a fairly generic reply.  The reply is irrelevant, the
important thing is whichever intern opened your letter marked off that bill
in the computer as 'a constituent wrote in in support'.  


Hope some of you find that useful.
73,
Chris KB1QXR

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Jack Roland* <ke0vh at q.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Subject: Cool: Ham Radio Antenna Bill:
To: Jack Roland <ke0vh at q.com>


Greetings all, here is something we can all help with!

Many hams across the country live in new development which are governed by
CC&Rs. CC&Rs are Codes, Covenants, and Restrictions and they are killers for
ham radio. Most CC&Rs prohibit the installation of ham antennas and as you
all are aware, you can't operate HF without a good antenna. The FCC
determined that states, counties, and cities can't prohibit the erection of
antennas but did not carry their edict to cover CC&Rs, leaving that change
for guidance from the U.S. Congress. There is currently a bill in the House
of Representatives to allow a reasonable accommodation for a ham antenna for
someone who is governed by CC&Rs. We all know someone who is affected by the
restrictions but now we can do something to help. There is a petition at
change.org that requests that the House pass the bill and we need every ham
in the country to sign it. Please forward this link to all your ham friends
(or anyone else you think might sign it). You can sign the petition.


http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-house-of-representatives-co-sponsor-hr-4
969-the-amateur-radio-parity-act-of-2014

-- Jack E. Roland
KE0VH
www.qsl.net/ke0vh
www.qsl.net/ke0vh/sbehamnet
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