[CW] Amateur Radio Parity Act Receives Favorable House Energy and Commerce Committee Report

[sbjohnston at aol.com]

It may happen, but I've never heard of a homeowners association saying it was OK to put an antenna if it were stealthy enough.  Their rules tend to ban all antennas outright. The stealth technique is intended to get on the air in spite of the rules.  So the existence of stealth antennas probably does not seriously undermine a ham's effort to get on the air under the radar of a homeowners association.  I do think this issue comes up sometimes when a guy is fighting a local ordinance against antennas beyond a certain size.

Regarding the articles:  It is hard to meet both goals - not promoting the fact that hams can get on the air under trying circumstances with compromise antennas, and teaching hams how to do it.

A big problem we face:  many new hams find themselves already living in places where they will have a hard time putting up decent antennas.  They weren't into the hobby when they selected their home, but now it poses a serious damper to their enthusiasm for ham radio.  So I can understand the desire to show these hams how it can be done in spite of limited circumstances.  

Hams in apartments have always faced this problem, but the homeowners associations issue has really grown over recent decades.  I read that this trend is due to a legal maneuver in which a property developer can get out of paying the costs for hooking up to city services if they form a homeowners association that collects fees and uses those to pay off those costs.  This shifts the burden to the homeowners.  I suppose not every homeowner association later takes off to becomes intrusive and controlling, but given human nature I think most do.


 

Steve WD8DAS

sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/
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