Antenna restrictions

[K3MRI]

I'm wondering what kind of antenna restrictions you have where you live, regardless of whether you are in a house, an RV or an apartment.

[K3MRI]

I'll start by saying that I live in a very restrictive building. They will not even allow us to put something above the height of the railing. Incredibly, they do not even allow Christmas lights or trees on the balcony. Admittedly, I constantly fight both restrictions. However, on the antenna side, even if they did let me, the building is HF-hateful. Every day, my building wakes up with a single purpose in life, to negate any of my attempts to send or receive an HF signal. On VHF/UHF, because I live at elevation, I am the King of the Plains. However, when it comes to HF, I have tried everything. On the balcony, outside the balcony at night when the building police are tucked away, I've tried loops, wires dangling, you name it. My noise is always at ±S9 and I just can't get a signal out or in. If I get into my car, park 100-feet away from the building and transmit, then all is good. And yes, I've tried multiple forms of grounding to no avail.

In short, I am a frustrated ham. The good news is that this experience has forced me to focus on my portable and mobile work. In fact, this very week, I am installing a 400W linear into the car!!

[WA2WMR]

Antennas by Eimac and then load up the railing.

 

[K3MRI]

Hi Lind, I went to their website but I could not find any amateur radio antennas. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place?

Btw, Eimac seems to have been bought out by this other company, here is the link that I found: https://www.cpii.com/products.cfm/15

[WA2WMR]

"Antennas by Eimac" refers to using a high power amplifier. Eimac made high power vacuum tubes.

 

[KD3Y]

Not only do I have no antenna restrictions where I live, but Ham antennas are expressly protected under the towns ordinance.
That's what happens when your town board is made up of all hams.  🙂  Even if the Karens wanted to form an HOA where I live, no rules they made would supercede the towns ordinances.  In fact, that's how I found my buddy a few blocks away when I was first licensed...he has a 60-foot tower in his front yard beside his house with a vertical 2-meter antenna on top and an inverted V dipole coming from the top to the trees in his front and back yard.  I just pulled in his driveway and knocked on his door and asked him if he was a ham.  Larry's been a great pal since.

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by KD3Y
Spelling errors

[K3MRI]

If only, if only, if only... I am literally counting the days until I get back on HF from a base. Don't get me wrong, love my HF mobile setup, but it'll be nice to be out of an HOA. Long story, and I won't throw her under the bus, but when my wife got this place I was away on deployment. Got back to find out that it was an HOA 😩

[KD3Y]

I guess HOAs can be a good thing,  but too often they simply go power hungry and go to the extreme with their hobby.  And thats what it is basically is a bunch of old retired snobs that need to find something to do with their life, and a bunch of crybabies who got picked on it high school and now want to show everyone their new  "authority".  I've never seen the benefit of paying someone money to make rules about what I cant do on the property I own and pay the taxes on.  The way I see it, when the HOA starts paying my mortgage and my property taxes, then they can tell me what I can't do.  If what I'm doing on my own land isn't hurting anyone and isn't illegal, then I should be left alone.  And by "hurting anyone" I don't mean they don't like my American flag or they don't like the color of my house.

Me and a Home Owners Ass-ociation would never get along.  I'd be in prison at the end.  I reckon I've got too much of that good old American freedom in me to live with an HOA's boot on my throat.  If what I do on my own property is so harmful then the town/county should pass a law prohibiting it.  If it doesn't rise to the seriousness of needing a law prohibiting it, then it's too trivial and people need to move on and get a life.

Thats just my opinion and worth every penny you paid for it.

 

73 de KD3Y