[PHX-Skywarn] HB 2595

Fri Apr 13 17:56:01 EDT 2007

Hello All 

This is from the ARRL Letter.....

Allen Sklar, W7AS

Tempe AZ 

***************

The ARRL Letter

Vol. 26, No. 15

April 13, 2007

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==>POLITICAL MANEUVER DIMS CHANCES FOR ARIZONA HAM RADIO ANTENNA

LEGISLATION

A political maneuver has ended chances that Arizona lawmakers will

adopt an Amateur Radio antenna bill that was in play this session. 

Proponents of "the Emergency Communications Preservation Act," 

House Bill 2595 (HB 2595) haven't given up, however. 

They're still trying, as one put it, "to pull a rabbit out of a hat"

and have the bill's language attached to another piece

of legislation. HB 2595 called on both municipalities and communities

governed by deed covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) to

reasonably accommodate Amateur Radio antennas. It passed the Arizona

House on a 56 to 2 vote. An eleventh-hour bid to keep HB 2595 alive
failed,

however, after Senate Government Committee Chairman Jack Harper (R-4),

declined to move the bill forward for consideration, effectively

killing it.

During an e-mail exchange with a bill supporter, Harper attempted to

explain why he derailed the measure.

"I just cannot allow the radio operaters [sic] to put up 40' towers

over the objection of their neighbors," Harper told Dustin Deppe, K7DTD.

"They were not open to negotiating the height, so I could not allow the 

bill to go forward." April 3 was the cutoff date for bills to be heard
this

session. Harper has not responded to an ARRL request to explain why he

held the bill.

HB 2595 did not specify any particular minimum height beyond saying that

homeowners' associations (HOAs) in CC&R-governed communities "shall

provide for reasonable heights and dimensions for accommodation of
amateur radio

station emergency communications antennae and structures."

City of Page Mayor Dan Brown, NA7DB -- perhaps HB 2595's biggest

supporter -- and former state representative Ted Downing, W7KEY, are in
the

forefront of the effort to pull off the magic trick. Brown has advised
Arizona

radio amateurs not to send "hate mail" to Harper, however. "It's
important to

educate," he said, not get angry. If the effort isn't successful, he

says, bill proponents will return better prepared next session.

Amateur Radio antenna bills in Maryland and Oklahoma also failed to gain

approval of lawmakers. In Maryland, essentially identical bills were

under consideration in both legislative chambers: House Bill 941 (HB
941) and

Senate Bill 68 (SB 68). "Our bill was voted down by the Senate
committee,

and we had it withdrawn from the House committee," ARRL Maryland-DC

Section Manager Jim Cross, WI3N, told ARRL. "We will introduce it next
year." The

bills would have required local zoning authorities to comply with the

PRB-1 limited federal pre-emption calling on municipalities to
"reasonably

accommodate Amateur Radio communication." Their provisions also would

have applied to homeowners' associations (HOAs) that had not already
enacted

antenna restrictions by the time the bill became law.

In Oklahoma, House Bill 1037 (HB 1037) moved out of the General

Government and Transportation Committee with a "do pass" recommendation,
but it

failed to be placed on the House calendar for a vote. Eddie Manley,
K5EMS, who

tracks FCC and governmental actions for the Oklahoma Section, has told

ARRL the measure is likely dead for this year, although he left open the
"very

remote possibility" that it could be attached to another bill.

In North Carolina, an Amateur Radio antenna bill has been introduced

in the state Senate this session, and a House bill is "in the works,"
ARRL North

Carolina Section Manager Tim Slay, N4IB, told ARRL. "We're hoping to
make

some headway on it this year."

To date, 23 states have adopted PRB-1 legislation. While PRB-1 requires

reasonable accommodation, it does not specify a minimum height below

which

local governments may not regulate. Four states -- Alaska, Wyoming,

Virginia

and Oregon -- have legislation in place that specifies antenna support

structure heights, below which municipalities may not regulate.

=========================================================== 

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Radio Relay League: ARRL--the National Association For Amateur Radio,
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<http://www.arrl.org>. Joel Harrison, W5ZN, President.

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