I don’t know how they think that they can get away with this, but apparently, the city of Palmdale, CA wants to effectively ban ham radio. According to some videos by N9FAA, the city of Palmdale is proposing an ordinance that will restrict amateur radio antennas to a height of one inch. Not only that, it will also create some kind of agency that will be enabled to actually confiscate antennas that don’t conform to the ordinance.
N9FAA notes that there is an item on the QRZ.Com forums discussing this issue, but I wasn’t able to find it.
Looks like the 10GHz band is going to see a surge of activity in Palmdale!
“That’s a dish sir, not an antenna. My antenna is only one inch long.”
I wonder what prompted this? Did they have some spectacularly bad experience with a ham radio installation?
Regardless, it sounds like a good way to waste money on a legal fight, given that PRB-1 will probably preempt it. If I were a ham living there I’d think about moving out, though; a city building department can find all kinds of ways to make your life miserable if they decide they don’t like you.
The QRZ thread is at http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=185892
73!
Those same towns also legislate how long you can keep your garage door open (Irvine, California). It’s all about looks.
The one-inch measurement relates to the height of a “vertical antenna” above the roofline of the house, not the size of the antenna itself. Wonder what they would say about a large horizontal loop – say 70 feet in the air (Those are towers, not antennas).
Wait ’till they need a Skywarn, ARES, or RACES activation.
I wonder what they will think about hand-held unit antennae?