[HCARC] Successful Antenna and Mast Take Down and Delivery

[Gary J - N5BAA]

A heart felt thank you to Tony Moore and Gordon Green, both relatively new members of the club for their assistance in taking down the Cushcraft R-7 antenna Harvey V. emailed about last week.  It was an easy disassembly of the mast from the makeshift tower (8 inch diameter treated Fence post 16 feet long) with a rudimentary tilting mechanism which wasn’t activated due to a fence on one side and a new outdoor pavilion on the other.  Mrs Burton was glad to have it down and we managed to leave her with a filled in hole with grass planted over the top.  In several weeks she won’t ever know the antenna mast was there.

The antenna was then delivered later today to it’s new Owner and QTH – Alan Cone and the “Tower” delivered to another Tech Class Operator named Kevin Holtan (Kevin is the guy who works as a lead silversmith for James Avery and who is wanting to manufacture a limited line of sterling silver Ham Keys – get in line folks and start buying up odd sterling silver spoons and forks to provide the silver for your Ham Key).  With Alan living in River Hills and having recently acquired a stealth 40 ft crank up mast, the R-7 is the perfect complement, allowing stealth since the antenna requires no radial system, thus allowing it to be retracted down behind his QTH, out of sight, and away from the prying eyes of the neighborhood Deed Enforcement Crew.  Of course if we all do our part of getting to our Congressional and Senate Critters, we will with the help of the ARRL get the law passed that makes it illegal for Homeowners associations to totally restrict outdoor antennas.  They will be able to say the antennas can’t be offensive (no 180 foot towers with big arrays), but will have to allow discreet antennas like verticals which can be partially hidden.  Alan’s new antenna will surely meet those requirements.  You can help by calling or emailing your representative and encourage them to join the sponsorship of the bill in the House of Reps in support of ARRL’s efforts on behalf of many many Ham Operators.

The Bill referenced above is HR-4969.  Here is a quote from ARRL:

“The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2014, introduced in the US House of Representatives with bipartisan support in late June, calls on the FCC to apply the "reasonable accommodation" three-part test of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy to private land-use restrictions regarding antennas. The limited PRB-1 pre-emption currently applies only to state and municipal land-use ordinances. The FCC has indicated its reluctance to provide the same legal protections from private land-use agreements -- often called covenants, conditions, and restrictions or CC&Rs -- without direction from Congress.”

Lets get Congress to give this direction to the FCC.


Gary J
N5BAA