By now many of you have seen the message to all of our members inviting
them to participate in the ARRL HOA bill effort we are advancing through
Congress. If you are not aware of the program or have not yet created
your letter of support to your Representatives and Senators in DC,
navigate directly to our website: https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ and see
how simple it is to send a letter to your US legislators. The website
will use your call sign to populate the letter with your information and
automatically select the appropriate legislators to address your
letters. When you finish and approve the letter on your screen, hit
send and the rest is automatic. All hams can use this site! It is not
just for ARRL Members. Pass it on.Your letter will be delivered by hand to the DC offices of your
Representative and Senators by our two DC firms who are shepherding this
effort. This is important. While sending your own letter to your
legislators is OK, such letters will likely not end up on the right
desk, if at all, for some months. However, our ARRL representatives in
Washington will deliver the letters you create directly to the correct
office by appointment and to discuss your interests.Some members argue that HOA dwellers made their own bed and should not
have bought a home in an HOA. I would not choose to live in one. But
this argument ignores that HOA restrictions affect all style family
homes, even homes with large yards and other style homes in which the
home owner controls the property around his or her house. Also, many
new hams were not licensed when they bought their home or had to move to
an HOA in retirement. Younger hams may have no choice of where they
live until later years.In response to your concerns that we have tried this approach before,
it is important to understand that our newest bill eliminates the
serious shortcomings of our last HOA bill attempt. If you are
interested in the differences from past to present, compare the old
Parity Act language side by side with our new, well-crafted bill. You
will understand why we spent years planning the new bill. Our proposal
is flexible based on the HOA home style and how much room is available
for simple antennas.Towers on smaller HOA lots such as with townhouses with no room in the
yard will likely never happen. But those homeowners should be able to
use indoor antennas, minimal impact wire antennas or simple deck mounted
antennas in certain circumstances. Some HOA rules prohibit any ham
radio operations at all, even with indoor antennas in single family
homes. I assist hams suffering with such draconian restrictions and
they are not uncommon.What our new HOA bill also asks for are the same rights HOA dwellers
already have to install outdoor Over the Air Reception Devices (OTARD)
for TV, satellite and internet wireless service antennas. Such antennas
are allowed under existing law without permission and without seeking
approval of the HOA board. You should have the same rights for similar
sized antennas. The bill is carefully drafted to be palatable in crowded
circumstances. We also comply with flagpole laws which supersede HOA
prohibitions. If you are allowed a flagpole, well, why not a flagpole
antenna of reasonable height?The site is open to ALL licensed radio amateurs, not just ARRL members.
And before you ask, only individual hams can use the site. No GMRS
licensees or non-hams can use the site correctly as the letter it
generates for you is carefully crafted and would not work with non-hams.
We are considering expansion of the site for such additional support.And for our Pennsylvania members, this past summer you heard from our
PA Section Managers and myself asking for your PA radio club to send us
separate club endorsements to deliver to certain targeted legislators in
PA we needed to step up to sponsor the bill to get started. Delaware
section leaders also stepped up much earlier and collected club letters
urging their Congress members to support our bill. Those letters have
been delivered.Another campaign for club letters for the other states in our division
has been rolled out yesterday. See the additional website link:
https://send-a-letter.org/club contains a revised set of Instructions
for club letters with a link to the MS Word version of the Club letter.
Clicking on the link automatically downloads the letter for your use.
Regardless, please use the site above to create your personal letter
ASAP.If you still have questions or concerns about our legislative push, let
me know. As time permits I will address your questions or comments. In
my view, the most important ham radio issues of our time are radio
spectrum protection, antenna rights and RFI pollution suppression. The
rest of what we all love about ham radio becomes less important if we do
not pay attention to these threats. This campaign is meant to address
one of these issues that currently affects many of you reading this.
Let’s continue to move forward.73, and I will see you on the radio.
Bob Famiglio, K3RF
ARRL Atlantic Division Director
Chairman Legal Defense Committee
Chairman ARES Subcommittee
610-359-7300——————————————————————–
ARRL Atlantic Division
Director: Robert B Famiglio, K3RF
k3rf@arrl.org
