How Ham Hood
|
We’re back for the moment in the world of Amateur radio. And we are located in the City of San Diego, California, which is home to regarding 3,700 ARS licensees. Its enlightened city government has, fundamentally on it is own initiative, written a draft zoning ordinance that would forbid the construction of all new ARS (only) antennas taller than a height of 30 feet AGL. Well, almost. An entrepreneurial ham would still have the right to file an application for a property development permit for a proposed new, 30 foot, non-conforming antenna structure; it’s the same permit issued for construction of buying goods malls and golf courses. And it requires an $8,000 application fee. Hams, of course, are the traditionalisti telecommunications “first responders,” on the air with ad-hoc instrumentation lash-ups and with both prior-established and spontaneous nets operating for the duration of and after natural or man-made disasters. This is just when everyone else is attempting to valuate the harm to communications systems, to make repairs, and to re-start service. The hams were there after Katrina, and they are on obligation today after the Haitian earthquake. No one doubts their sincerity or their usefulness. Local governments in the San Diego area have even included established Amateur communications systems into their disaster planning. And well they should: the region lies in an earthquake zone, is prone to spectacular back country brush fires, and is even open to big storms and the subsequent flooding and mudslides for the duration of recurrent El Nino weather events. Note also that this proposed ordinance applies specifically and solely to ARS licensees. It does not mention mercantile two-way radio, cellular base stations, broadcasters, short-wave radio listeners, over-the-air TV viewers, CBers, or even owners of home weather stations. These other folks may build as tall as they want, contingent only on filing for and receiving structural building permits. So what has caused San Diego city government to go after ham operators? A local ham, fueled with far more cash and ambition than mutual sense, proposed, someways was issued building permits for, and built a huge antenna installation at his home. Unfortunately, that home is located in with regards to the most “exclusive” (read: expensive) neighborhood in the city, and the installation is grossly oversized for the lot on which it resides and for the neighborhood in which it is located. It does harm to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. A structure that size must in general be built in a rural area, not in the city. While hams do need tall antenna structures, discretion and mutual sense would dictate some voluntary limits as to sizes and heights for those in principally residential areas. (For non-ham readers, the taller the tower is, the more radiation-efficient are high-frequency ["short wave"] antennas mounted atop it, and also the dandier the line-of-sight to the horizon for VHF/UHF antennas.) Very tall towers do not belong in city residential neighborhoods. But ARS towers of lesser height, the right way constructed, do. And so likewise says the FCC, both houses of the U.S. Congress, and the State of California. The city of San Diego seems to disagree with these authorities. Meanwhile, “back in the hood” the local ham steadfastly refused to confess that he had produced a problem, and his neighbors launched into orbit when “the monster” started out climbing toward the stars. Unfortunately the neighbors, being members of the higher economic classes, had little difficultness profiting the ears of city governmental officials or of obtaining skilled legal counsel to press their points. And city government responded to their outcry by drafting the proposed ordinance. The local hams, of course, have no intention of just standing on the sidelines and watching this travesty unfold. They have organized, have brought experienced professional support into the battle, and have been joined by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL, Amateur radio’s national organization) and it is legal counsel. Together they are lobbying the city government and the respective departments that have their hands in the drafting of the ordinance. It would not be prudent to disclose the hams’ plans in print, however, but the crusade is well underway. The typical outcome from such a clash of interests must be some sort of compromise on the portion of the contending parties, i.e., “You may legally build your tower up to XX feet above ground with just a building permit, but if you want to go any higher you will need to file more elaborated environmental plans and to obtain a special permit.” Most of the ham population believes that XX ought to be someplace amongst 65 and 80 feet, not the city-proposed and basically stifling 30 feet. Those Amateur-proposed figures are not randomly drawn from a hat; there are good and sufficient engineering reasons underlying them. But there are no signs of a compromise developing. Sources have said the city is mesmerized only in passing the ordinance as presently written. They will not consider engineering science arguments, and they seem not exceptionally mesmerized in the views of even their own and other local agencies’ disaster preparedness staffs. So it appears that the householders could win the day, but any new ordinance will surely be headed without delay into litigation. Thus a city government which has big current deficits in it is own operating and it is employees’ pension budgets, which oversees crumbling roads, water and sewer lines, and which has ever-shrinking Public Safety division staffs, will squander it is fixed funds in litigating versus a group of volunteers who provide actual, cash-valued services and instrumentation to the city. These contributions are approximated as annual city staff labor savings of $2.5 million and “in-lieu” one-time communications instrumentation savings of $6 million. |
