[PaQSO] EPA Antenna Hearing (Part 3)

[TwelveVDC--- via PaQSO]

Dear Fellow Amateur,

I write to you as I believe you may be a radio amateur residing in or about either Tredyffrin or Schuylkill Townships in Chester County. Each township has recently taken a formal position against amateur radio operators in zoning matters. As a representative elected by members ofthe ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, in the thirty-four counties of our Eastern Pennsylvania section, and as an amateur radio volunteer legal counsel for the ARRL Atlantic Division for over thirty years, I wish to bring an important development to your immediate attention. I am presently acting as legal counsel to Jeff DePolo, WN3A.

Jeff is a very active radio amateur assisting Amateur Radio Emergency Service units in many different counties in and throughout the Eastern Pennsylvania section, most notably in Southeast Pennsylvania. If you do not know Jeff personally, you may be familiar with his repeater systems he owns or maintains: the University of Pennsylvania linked system N3KZ (which Jeff owns) the Wide Area Repeater network W3WAN, W3SBE in Philadelphia, and many of the local clubs' repeater systems such as Marple-Newtown ARC, several ARES/RACES groups, and others. Some of these systems are a direct result of Jeffs years of contributions in time, money and sweat equity invested for all of us. Jeff is a serious VHF, UHF and microwave experimenter and operator, and is a member of the nationally renowned Mt. Airy VHF Society "Pack Rats" from the greater Philadelphia area.

Jeff has lived on Valley Forge Mountain in Schuylkill Township since 2000. Recently, Jeff's family purchased a 3-acre heavily-wooded lot about 1000 feet away from, and on the same road as his Schuylkill Township residence, but the new lot is in Tredyffrin Township. They are currently in the process of constructing their new dream home on this property. Jeff applied for a building permit for a180-foot self­ supporting antenna structure, but his permit was denied due to the application not complying with a township-wide "35 foot rule" for building heights in residential districts. The proposed height is the minimum necessary to put his antennas over the many tall trees and terrain in the immediate area. Other radio amateurs with antenna towers have lived on the mountain as well, in both Tredyffrin and Schuylkill Townships.

(End Part 3 of 4)