A lot of hams think that the biggest challenge amateur radio operators face are the restrictive deed covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) that are in effect in many new housing developments. Basically, these CC&Rs prevent residents from erecting an outdoor antenna. This, of course, limits how effective our stations can be.

In 1985, the FCC issued a memorandum opinion and order commonly referred to as PRB-1. This order limits the power that local governments have in putting restrictive antenna ordinances into effect. It says that because amateur radio operators are licensed by the federal government, local governments must make reasonable accomodation when amateur radio operators apply to erect antenna structures. Time and time again this memorandum has held up in court.

Unfortunately, this memorandum does not apply to private agreements, such as the CC&Rs mentioned previously. Many amateurs are, therefore, limited to using antennas that can be built in an attic or a very small antenna on the outside of their house. Needless to say this is not a good situation, and often discourages people from getting an amateur radio license.

The article below describes an effort to treat restrictive provisions in CC&Rs in the same way that restrictive ordinances are treated. I’d encourage you to read this article from the ARRL website and then write your Congressional representative and ask him or her to support this bill. You can send your rep an e-mail by going to http://www.house.gov/writerep/. To send snail mail, the address is U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.

From the ARRL:

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 23, 2005–New York Congressman Steve Israel has reintroduced legislation that could make it easier for radio amateurs living in communities with deed covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs) to erect suitable antennas. Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross, WD5DVR, signed aboard as an original cosponsor of the “Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Consistency Act” (HR 3876). ARRL Hudson Division Director Frank Fallon, N2FF, who attended Israel’s public announcement of the bill September 19 on Long Island, pointed out the Amateur Radio volunteers always fill the gap after other communication systems fail in an emergency or disaster. He notes the bill’s introduction comes in the immediate aftermath of positive media coverage of Amateur Radio’s response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

“Unfortunately if all new housing developments contain deed restrictions forbidding outside antennas there will probably come a time when there will not be enough ham radio operators to help their neighbors and countrymen,” said Fallon. He believes Israel’s bill will help to ensure that Amateur Radio will continue to be able to provide emergency communication should a disaster occur.

Fallon, who head up the League’s grassroots lobbying initiative, was on hand for Israel’s announcement, which took place at the home of ARRL New York City-Long Island Emergency Coordinator Tom Carrubba, KA2D.

A reporter for WLNY-TV (Channel 55) interviews Rep Israel about the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Consistency Act of 2005. [Frank Fallon, N2FF, Photo]

The one-sentence measure is identical to the text of the CC&R bill that has been introduced in the last two sessions of Congress: “For purposes of the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation relating to station antenna structures in the Amateur Radio Service (47 CFR 97.15), any private land use rules applicable to such structures shall be treated as a state or local regulation and shall be subject to the same requirements and limitations as a state or local regulation.”

The measure would put private land-use regulations, such as homeowners’ association rules, on the same legal plane as state or local zoning regulations under the FCC’s PRB-1 limited federal preemption regarding antenna structures–§97.15 of the Amateur Service rules. PRB-1 now applies only to states and municipalities.

ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, is encouraging League members to write their elected representative and ask that they cosponsor and support the bill, especially given two hurricane emergencies in short order.

ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP (right), during an earlier visit to Rep Israel’s Washington office.

“I think it’s time now that we, as amateurs, really band together and see what we can do about writing our congressional representatives and explaining to them that Amateur Radio is certainly a part of this nation’s communications infrastructure,” Haynie said. “What we’re asking for is just a fair shake so we can put up antennas and help our fellow citizens.”

While the League has ramped up its efforts to educate members of Congress about Amateur Radio, Haynie said lawmakers respond best to individual members.

HR 3876 has been assigned to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Information about the bill and a sample letter to use when contacting your representative are available on the ARRL Web site.

In his formal announcement this week, Israel said that “often unsung” Amateur Radio volunteers were instrumental in helping residents in the hardest hit areas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, including saving stranded flood victims in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“State and local governments, as well as disaster relief agencies, could not possibly afford to replace the services that radio amateurs dependably provide for free,” said a statement from Israel’s office. “However, the hundreds of thousands of Amateur Radio licensees face burdensome regulations that make it extremely difficult to provide their public services.”

In past statements, Israel has said that the growth of developed communities has put a growing number of hams under an “array of inconsistent regulations” that make it harder and harder–or altogether impossible–to erect the necessary antennas.

Here’s an editorial by Ward Silver, N0AX from the August 10, 2005 Contest Rate Sheet. It’s reprinted here with permission from the ARRL. About the only thing I’d change is his translations of the purposes of amateur radio as set forth in Part 97.1. Other than that, he’s right on….Dan

In preparing a presentation for the Pacific NW DX Convention on new ways of visualizing radio information, I felt that it was important to evaluate the ideas for their possible effect on ham radio. After all, if new technology, techniques, or activities don’t make ham radio “better”, then why implement them?

The implied part of that question is that we actually know what “better” is. The quick reply is usually, “Well, of course I know!” But when pressed, it can be difficult to say exactly where the Good Arrow points. A legalistic definition would be to point to the FCC’s Part 97.1 – the Basis and Purpose for the Amateur Service, paraphrased here as:

• Voluntary communications, particularly emergency communications
• Advancement of the radio art
• Advancing skills in the communications and technical phases of the (radio) art
• Expansion of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts
• Enhance international goodwill

Those are a little dry, so translating those principles into more personable statements in no particular order:

• Increase understanding of the physical environment of radio
• Improve an operator’s efficiency, accuracy, and breadth of expertise
• Encourage technical learning about communications systems
• Develop new radio services and techniques
• Create new opportunities for building and innovation

These are pretty much where my particular Good Arrow points. I don’t expect every possible change to ham radio to score a plus on every one of those five points, but if a change can’t muster a little enthusiasm in any of those areas, then maybe it’s not going in the direction of the Good Arrow. Conversely, the more goals a change promotes, the better the change may be.

Some changes have uniformly good effects, but most will be of the “some steps forward, some steps backwards” variety. This leaves us to count the steps, weigh them, and decide whether there is a net benefit. Things get even more complicated when combinations of changes are occurring. Two rights might make a wrong! Then there is the fact of having thousands of humans all acting and reacting at once – that makes life genuinely interesting, doesn’t it?

When presented with such a rich and frothy brew of possibilities, it’s usually easiest to just pull the covers over one’s head and reject them all. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Of course, this conveniently ignores the fact that radio and radio operators are continually changing, whether we embrace change or not.

Undoubtedly, amateur radio is in a watershed period, just as it was in the years following World War II, a period of dramatic technical change and a rapid change in the population of amateurs. While there was a lot of complaining, that upheaval seems to have turned out OK. Today, the rapidly hybridizing Internet-Radio combination, changing license requirements, and accelerating technical evolution of radio will probably transform ham radio to the same degree as before and after WWII. Radio in 1960 looked an awful lot different to an amateur that got started in the 1930′s – a situation in which many of us find ourselves today.

As you browse the Web, read the magazines, and kick things around with your friends, you’ll encounter divisive and difficult topics such as CW testing, spotting networks, digital radios, bandwidth and band plans, and on and on. Even in such an environment, where it’s difficult to know the long-term benefits and costs of changes, one can still apply Good Arrow measuring sticks and support the aspects of change that line up closest. Then it becomes a question of whether you choose to dwell on features that measure up or the ones that don’t. Ham radio is molting – all we have to do now is decide which parts will make up the new lobster and which parts the old shell.

Neil Sablatzky, K8IT is running for Great Lakes Division Directory. I support him and hope that you’ll support him as well. Here is his candidate’s statement.

A Novice operator at age 14, I enjoy Amateur Radio Public Service, Experimentation, and Operating most modes. I have provided public service operations for many events, including: New York City Marathon, MS-150 Bike Tours, Michigan UP-200 Dog Sled Races, and many Skywarn, ARES, RACES, and Storm Recovery Nets. I am a member of the ARRL High Speed Multi Media Working Group, serve as a local AEC, and enjoy training amateurs on new subjects.

After 31+ years of Amateur Radio, (Extra, Age 46), our hobby is facing declining interest, we are in danger of losing frequency bandwidth, facing antenna restrictions, and losing public acceptance of Amateur Radio.

The Future.

First, we must elect active, progressive thinking and technically competent leadership.

Second, we must evaluate every mode, frequency allocation, and operating procedure. We need to adjust for the future, but not at another mode’s expense.
While a CW test is not needed, given a mirror or flashlight, what other mode can replace CW?

Third, we must not abandon the new Amateur. We must address the availability of training, offered to new amateurs, once they pass the test.

Fourth, we need youth. We must communicate that Amateur Radio is fun, group conversations are common place, and students with licenses can earn the required community public service needed for high school graduation. We must boost the number of significant college scholarship grants by teaming with industry to market Amateur Radio, as a skill set development opportunity.

Fifth, the ARRL must become the voice of the amateur. This requires that the Board of Directors listen to its members, and not sanction causes such as “Regulation by Bandwidth” if the result limits operation and experimentation.

Please email mailto:k8it@arrl.net for additional information.
I, K8IT, look forward to serving as your Great Lakes Division Director.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am running for Great Lakes Division Vice Director in 2005. Here’s my 300-word candidate’s statement.

Amateur radio and the ARRL face a number of difficult problems. Two of the most urgent are declining membership (currently less than 25% of licensed amateur radio operators are ARRL members) and diminishing clout in Washington, but there are others. I think most of our problems stem—not from the number of licensees—but from the number of active radio amateurs.

While there have not been any scientific surveys, some estimate that up 50% of all licensees are inactive. For whatever reason, these folks lost interest and are amateur radio operators in name only.

This is a shame, if you ask me. Inactive hams don’t show up for public service events or work CW or experiment with circuits or send letters to their Congressmen and Congresswomen.

How can we encourage amateur radio operators to be more active? One thing we can do is develop classes that will teach people not only what they need to know to pass a test, but what they need to know to be successful amateur radio operators. These include how to solder, how to make voltage and current measurements, and how to make simple antennas.

Better support for clubs is also needed. Clubs are where the action is. Good clubs bring hams into the hobby and turn them into active amateur radio operators. Bad clubs turn people away from amateur radio and foster bad stereotypes about amateur radio and amateur radio operators.

And finally, we need to start getting youth into amateur radio again. We must show them how technically challenging ham radio can be, but even more importantly, how much fun it can be.

I’m running for Great Lakes Division Vice Director so that I can work on these issues. With your support, we can make ham radio better.

If you want to file a comment on the latest FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Mike Volz has a webpage that makes it easy to first read the proposal in its entirety and then post a comment.

Personally, I think it’s a done deal no matter how many people comment.

From ARRL Headquarters Newington CT July 21, 2005

To all radio amateurs,

The FCC has proposed dropping the 5 WPM Morse code element as a requirement to obtain an Amateur Radio license of any class. The Commission included the recommendation in a July 19 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 05-235, but it declined to go along with any other proposed changes to Amateur Service licensing rules or operating privileges. Changes to Part 97 that the FCC proposed in the NPRM would not become final until the Commission gathers additional public comments, formally adopts any new rules and concludes the proceeding with a Report and Order specifying the changes and an effective date. That’s not likely to happen for several months.

“Based upon the petitions and comments, we propose to amend our amateur service rules to eliminate the requirement that individuals pass a telegraphy examination in order to qualify for any amateur radio operator license,” the FCC said. The NPRM consolidated 18 petitions for rule making from the amateur community–including one from the ARRL–that had proposed a wide range of additional changes to the amateur rules. The FCC said the various petitions had attracted 6200 comments from the amateur community, which soon will have the opportunity to comment again–this time on the FCC’s NPRM.

The Commission said it believes dropping the 5 WPM Morse examination would encourage more people to become Amateur Radio operators and would eliminate a requirement that’s “now unnecessary” and may discourage current licensees from advancing their skills. It also said the change would “promote more efficient use” of amateur spectrum.

To support dropping the code requirement, the FCC cited changes in Article 25 of the international Radio Regulations adopted at World Radiocommunication Conference 2003. WRC-03 deleted the Morse testing requirement for amateur applicants seeking HF privileges and left it up to individual countries to determine whether or not they want to mandate Morse testing. Several countries already have dropped their Morse requirements for HF access.

ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, said he was not surprised to see the FCC propose scrapping the Morse requirement altogether, although the League had called for retaining the 5 WPM requirement only for Amateur Extra class applicants. Sumner expressed dismay, however, that the FCC turned away proposals from the League and other petitioners to create a new entry-level Amateur Radio license class.

“We’re disappointed that the Commission prefers to deny an opportunity to give Amateur Radio the restructuring it needs for the 21st century,” he said. “It appears that the Commission is taking the easy road, but the easy road is seldom the right road.”

Sumner said ARRL officials and the Board of Directors will closely study the 30-page NPRM and comment further once they’ve had an opportunity to consider the Commission’s stated rationales for its proposals.

In 2004, the League called on the FCC to create a new entry-level license, reduce the number of actual license classes to three and drop the Morse code testing requirement for all classes except for Amateur Extra. Among other recommendations, the League asked the FCC to automatically upgrade Technician licensees to General and Advanced licensees to Amateur Extra. In this week’s NPRM, the FCC said it was not persuaded such automatic upgrades were in the public interest.

The FCC said it did not believe a new entry-level license class was warranted because current Novice and Tech Plus licensees will easily be able upgrade to General once the code requirement goes away. The Commission also said its “Phone Band Expansion” (or “Omnibus”) NPRM in WT Docket 04-140 already addresses some of the other issues petitioners raised.

A 60-day period for the public to comment on the NPRM in WT 05-235 will begin once the notice appears in the Federal Register. Reply comments will be due within 75 days.

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Editor’s Notes

1. I think that even more what this portends for day-to-day amateur radio activities, this is an important NPRM because it practically ignores all of the ARRL’s recommendations. Is this a slap on the wrist from the FCC for all the fuss we’ve kicked up about BPL, or is it an indication of how far the ARRL’s clout has slipped in Washington?
2. It’s too bad that the FCC has decided not to create a beginner’s class license. I think the beginner’s class license was a good idea and would have been good for amateur radio. Amateur radio operators, as a whole, are now going to have to work harder to integrate new hams into the fold.
3. From a personal point of view I’m dismayed as it appears that I’m not going to be grandfathered into the Extra class after all. I’m actually going to have to study and take the test! :)