Archive for year: 2015

Another Ham – Another HOA Hassle

Nancy lives in a community for people aged 55 and older. The home-owner’s association banned her from putting up any kind of antenna. John Amodeo, producer of the hit TV show “Last Man Standing” (starring Tim Allen, himself a ham radio operator) and I traveled to Florida to see what we could do to make a 39 ft long antenna, fit in a 23 ft long attic!

Support The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015

Let’s finally stop the HOA Gestapo from preventing the 23% of American households who live in HOA communities from having effective ham radio antennas.

The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 — H.R.1301 in the US House of Representative and S 1685 in the US Senate —  would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communications to private land use restrictions. US Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) introduced HR 1301 on March 4 with 12 original cosponsors from both sides of the aisle — seven Republicans and five Democrats in the US House.  US Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced S 1685 on June 26, with Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) as the original cosponsor, into the US Senate.

The Amateur Radio Parity Act would require the FCC to amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to apply the three-part test of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy to include homeowners association regulations and deed restrictions, often referred to as “covenants, conditions, and restrictions” (CC&Rs). At present, PRB-1 only applies to state and local zoning laws and ordinances. The FCC has been reluctant to extend the same legal protections to include private land-use agreements without direction from Congress.

H.R. 1301 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), chairs that panel’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which will consider the measure. S 1685 has been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet, which is chaired by the bill’s sponsor, Wicker.

ARRL members are urged to contact their members of both the House and the Senate, asking them to sign on to the bill as a co-sponsor. Route letters for your member of Congress to:

ARRL
Attn  HR 1301 grassroots campaign
225 Main St
Newington CT 06111

For more information on both of the bills, please refer to the information in the two areas below – HR 1301 for information about the House version and S 1685 for the Senate version.

http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act