[TVARC] Making antennas in our HOAs legal

[N4REE - Bob]

As many of you probably know, the ARRL is attempting yet again to help 
us make our antennas legal.  Maybe the proposed legislation will work 
this time.

For you who haven't heard about it yet, the ARRL has prepared 
legislation and is doing letter preparation and delivery for us. They 
offer a site where any of us can fill out a simple form that gets 
letters sent to our House Representative and both of our Senators.  If 
you haven't been there yet, please visit: https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/

WAIT, THERE'S MORE you might want to know:

* Bob White, K0NR, has a summary of antennas the legislation will allow, 
at: https://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2025/09/pass-the-bill/
He summarizes, the bill requires that specific amateur radio antennas 
NOT require approval from HOAs or similar organizations for:
- Antennas that are 1 meter or less in diameter
- Flagpole antennas, not to exceed 43 feet in height
- Wire antennas – minimally obtrusive wire antennas
- Vertical antennas – not to exceed 43 feet in height

* The legislation itself mentions a few permissible restrictions, at: 
https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr1094/BILLS-119hr1094ih.pdf
Namely:
- Compliance with manufacturer specifications, zoning ordinances, tower 
ordinances and building codes
- Be maintained in a structurally safe manner
- Be removed if the property on which the antenna exists ceases to be in 
control of the owner/operator.
- Ground-mounted antenna structures and enclosures are to be shielded 
from view from the street and neighboring properties.

ADDITIONALLY, the ARRL has a page that explains their thinking and they 
actually mention THE VILLAGES on that page.  See it at: 
https://www.arrl.org/current-legislation

Full text of the ARRL's letter is here: 
https://send-a-letter.org/hoasampleletter/

While these might not be the antennas we really want, these conditions 
offer us many more legal options than we currently have, along with 
legal justification we can use with the Architecture Review Boards and 
our neighbors.

For my part, I have already signed up for the ARRL letters.  I'm also 
going another step further in creating my own letters to send to my 3 
reps. It seems to me that a bit more local "color" might catch their 
attention.  To that end, I've added two paragraphs that I place in the 
middle of the ARRL letter.   Use something like these if you please.

Bob, N4REE additions:
-----------------------------
Amateur radio operators serve critical emergency communications when 
commercial infrastructure fails.  To me, this is especially important in 
Florida where frequent hurricanes cause communications disruptions.  
Amateur radio operators are here to help when cell towers and other 
commercial radio installations are destroyed by storms, as with 
hurricane Milton in Tampa, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando last year.

My community, The Villages, has a population estimated at 150,000.  We 
have over 200 licensed amateur radio operators here. Each of us have a 
restriction in our property covenants that prohibits "aerials of any 
kind."  With the legal antennas proposed in this legislation, we can be 
far more helpful during emergencies, and can use our antennas during 
calmer times to keep our skills honed.
-----------------------------
Please consider joining in and pushing our congress people for this 
legislation.
73 de N4REE, Bob
n4ree at bob-eastom.com

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