[TVARC] Making antennas in our HOAs legal
N4REE - Bob
N4REE at bob-easton.com
Mon Sep 29 15:39:55 EDT 2025
Fellow club members,
So far, I have received responses, erm criticisms, from 6 club members.
Several of them are indicative that the person writing has not read the
actual legislation. Read it at:
https://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2025/09/pass-the-bill/ (HOA is never
mentioned in the bill.)
The legislation asks to allow verticals as tall as 43', but ALSO asks
that people follow local building laws. (Common sense tells us not to
build things that fall on the neighbor's property.)
As for the number of hams I mentioned in my letter, I said _OVER_ 200
hundred hams. 400, 500, 600 are all over 200. I believe that anyone who
thinks congress people *actually read* these letters and care about some
trivial detail have probably never closely followed the law/sausage
making process. You can use whatever number you please in any letter
you write. The easiest thing is to not write your own, and use the ARRL
robot generated letters: https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ which doesn't
mention any numbers.
My reward for trying to be constructively helpful is a string of emails
being critical of facts some haven't even read. Not a single "thank
you" among them. Yet, on thinking about it, there's no way to say
"thank you" if your prime communication mode is FT8.
Best de N4REE, Bob
P.S. Mr. webmaster, a mention of the size of the club's membership on
k4vrc.com might help.
On 9/29/2025 1:26 PM, Tim Leonard via TVARC wrote:
> I question whether this proposal will make any difference here in the
> Villages since we do not have HOA's. We have deed restrictions which
> appear to be different. There is a definite difference between deed
> restrictions and HOA restrictions in many states.
>
> On Monday, September 29, 2025 at 09:02:16 AM EDT, Ed Deichler via
> TVARC <tvarc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
>
> Bob,
>
> The allowance of a 43-foot vertical or flagpole in HOAs is probably
> too high. The Villages currently allows no more than 22 feet as I
> found when putting up my 6BTV inside PVC as a flagpole. (You can get
> away with a bit higher which I did.) The usual complaint is that the
> antenna must not fall on an adjacent property. If that is the case,
> it means poor installation or a cat 4+ hurricane, in which case more
> home damage is likely from the storm.
>
> 73 de Ed
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 4:38 AM James Simpson via TVARC
> <tvarc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>
> Bob, N4REE,
>
> I believe your suggested number of hams in The Villages exceeds
> 400 plus hams. Not sure exactly how to verify that but 200 is much
> to low based on comments I have heard in the Villages Amateur
> Radio Club meetings.
>
> This must be verified by some reasonable means before we use it to
> make any proposals for legal status modifications.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
> 622 Tracy Dr, The Villages, Fl. 32159
> Jim Simpson, KF8J
> 937-478-0996
>
>> On Sep 27, 2025, at 3:50 PM, N4REE - Bob via TVARC
>> <tvarc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>
>> --
>> QRP Forever ---===+++===--- Make CW a second language
>> https://bob-easton.com/n4ree
>>
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--
QRP Forever ---===+++===--- Make CW a second language
https://bob-easton.com/n4ree
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