[W1SMH] Antenna Tower Issue

Wed Oct 7 18:32:45 EDT 2009

Hi Ray:  The 20th of October is a Tuesday,  it is also a meeting nite it 
would be very interesting for the club to show up there.  Residents or not 
we still have more club stuff in the plans for airmail and pbbs etc.  Just a 
thought.  PS tnx for your efforts with the city planner.

73

John
N1FLO

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Raymond Cord" <RCord at mettel.com>
To: "D. Austin Horowitz" <dahorowitz at gmail.com>; "Kenneth Stringham" 
<ae1x at yahoo.com>
Cc: "Tom Frenaye" <frenaye at pcnet.com>; <w1smh at mailman.qth.net>; 
<w1mpn at arrl.org>; "David G Sumner" <dsumner at arrl.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [W1SMH] Antenna Tower Issue

> Hello all
> I have just spoken to the Attleboro City Planner
> and while an approved draft is not available to the public yet,
> he assures me that the bill is aimed to regulate Cellular/Wireless
> Telecommunications towers. I reminded him that someone painting with a
> broad
> brush could make a Ham Radio Tower fit that definition. He agreed.
> He is very familiar with Mass Gen Law Ch 40A. While he is not
> enthusiastic about writing
> specific exemtions into the proposed ordinance he assures me that it
> WILL be in compliance
> with Ch 40A. He was not aware of PRB-1 but also assured me it would be
> incompliance with that
> also.
> I will get a draft of the regulations as soon as they become available
> and try to forward them
> to this list. I am also going to send an email to the Fire Chiefs and
> EMA directors of Attleboro
> and the surrounding Communities to solicit a letter from them to the
> Planning Board requesting
> the exemtion. Those Communities have signed an MOU with the SMH ARC ARES
> team so it should be no problem.
> In the meantime the hearing is scheduled for 7:00PM on Thursday Oct 20
> in the City Council hambers.
> I would urge Attleboro HAMs to attend as comments may be limited to
> Attleboro residents only.
> In the meantime if there is information that needs to be sent or
> delivered to the City Planner
> send it to me and I will make sure it gets delivered.
> So as it stands now, there is no deliberate attempt to regulate HAM
> Radio Towers. However,
> we just need to make sure we don't get swept under the bus with the Cell
> Towers.
>
> Thank you for your concerns
>
> 73
> Ray Cord K2TGX
> Secretary Sturdy Mem Hospital ARC W1SMH
> Trustee K1SMH 147.195
> Deputy Director Norton EMA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: w1smh-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:w1smh-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of D. Austin Horowitz
> Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 12:22 PM
> To: Kenneth Stringham
> Cc: w1smh at mailman.qth.net; Arthur Greenberg; Tom Frenaye; David G Sumner
> Subject: Re: [W1SMH] Antenna Tower Issue
>
> While it would be very useful to obtain the assistance of a
> Massachusetts attorney, (the ARRL list of volunteer counsel in MA is at
> http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/local/vci.html?ctype=2&stat
> e=MA&lname=&myaction=Search+By+Appointee+State),
> at
> the very least the Attleboro city council needs to be reminded of the
> state law protecting amateur operations (I am not an Attleboro resident,
> so it wouldn't be proper for me to do this).
>
> Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 40A, Section 3 (available at
> http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/40a-3.htm) includes the provision
> that "No zoning ordinance or by-law shall prohibit the construction or
> use of an antenna structure by a federally licensed amateur radio
> operator. Zoning ordinances and by-laws may reasonably regulate the
> location and height of such antenna structures for the purposes of
> health, safety, or aesthetics; provided, however, that such ordinances
> and by-laws reasonably allow for sufficient height of such antenna
> structures so as to effectively accommodate amateur radio communications
> by federally licensed amateur radio operators and constitute the minimum
> practicable regulation necessary to accomplish the legitimate purposes
> of the city or town enacting such ordinance or by-law."
>
> This basically codifies on a state level the PRB-1 federal preemption
> granted by FCC regulation.
>
> I definitely wish all Attleboro residents success in fending off this
> threat.
>
> -Austin, KB2WIL
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Kenneth Stringham <ae1x at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Gentlemen,
>>
>> We have an serious antenna issue in Attleboro, MA. For those of you
>> with the ARRL, I know that I am no longer a member, not by choice but
>> by economic necessity. We have public hearing scheduled for
>> 20-Oct-2009 at 7:00pm in our city council chambers. This public
>> hearing involves a change to our City Ordinances to restrict all
>> Wireless Communications towers to locates at least 500' from any
>> structure used for a residence. This would eliminate all residential
>> amateur radio towers unless we can get them include exclusions for
> personal communications systems.
>>
>> This mess was precipitated by an attempt by T-Mobile to place a new
>> Cell Tower on property of the Knights of Columbus on Highland Avenue
>> in South Attleboro, MA. The neighbors protested at a public hearing to
>
>> approve the installation of the tower citing lost property values and
>> potential for biological harm from the emissions.
>>
>> I'm hoping that I can get others to take a serious interest in this
>> potential disaster in the making. Our community needs to make
>> substantial showing at this hearing with all the proper materials and
>> words to make an effective case for an exemption.
>>
>> Respectfully Yours,
>>
>> Kenneth E. Stringham, Jr.
>> AE1X
>> 223 Mendon Rd.
>> South Attleboro, MA 02703-7571
>> Tel: 508-639-9808
>>
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________
>> W1SMH mailing list
>> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/w1smh
>> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>> Post: mailto:W1SMH at mailman.qth.net
>>
>> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email
>
>> list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> W1SMH mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/w1smh
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:W1SMH at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> W1SMH mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/w1smh
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:W1SMH at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> 