Antenna Restrictions ?

[WS4B]

I wish the poll had a question response along the lines of rules being enforced, and consider/grant exceptions.

I live in such a place and long story short a compromise was reached and I was granted permission to put up a vertical in my back yard about 18 months ago. I went with the SteppIR Big IR vertical, and have been very pleased. You can see a photo of it on my QRZ bio page. It's 32 feet in height, so the peak of my home pretty much swallows its appearnce from the street. I laid down 48 ground radials (about 1,000 feet of 16 gague wire), which was the labor of love part of the installation.

Part of the permission process was to gather signatures of home owners on my street agreeing to the antenna. That means I door knocked about 20 homes. I felt quite fortunate in that not one person objected after answering their questions.

The HOA wasn't going to go along with me having a Yagi or LP on a nice tower, so the vertical was the perfect compromise. I can enjoy the HF part of the hobby without people in my neighborhood complaining about seeing an "eyesore".

Being in the part of Florida that I live in, its hard to find a nice home in a good school district that is not in an HOA. The five year plan is to buy a few acres and have a home built in a regular fee simple area. That is the best way around deed restrictions IMHO in my area.

[WN9HJW]

I wish the poll had a question response along the lines of rules being enforced, and consider/grant exceptions.

You're right. But I didn't think of that when I composed the poll. To read the recent threads on the subject, having an HOA accommodate anything at all would seem to be exceedingly rare.

[N4UP]

WS4B --- Very nice to hear your HOA is so reasonable. My HOA has a similar process for architectural "changes" while excluding outside antennas other than DISH or DirectTV from consideration. Even so, obtaining signatures ( not permissions, but acknowledgements ) from any neighbor who has a line of sight to my home I would consider a challenge. I would rather contact neighbors by mail with an informative package and invite them to the HOA hearing where I could make my case. I applaud your ability and willingness to knock on doors ( and your success ).

Having a few acres, building a house, without HOA restrictions, sounds wonderful. Indeed, that is exactly what I did when I retired. Sold my home in the DC area, bought 16 acres in rural North Carolina, had a house built, and was just about to put a rig together and build an antenna farm, when I suffered a massive head injury. Now I live on less than an acre ( and most of that is lake ) in a gated community with HOA restrictions. It was something I just had to do, given my age, living alone, and my loss of physical dexterity.

[AD5MB]

Not wise to tell New Mexicans they can't. They will spit on your boot while looking you in the eye and teach you colorful disrespectful Spanish words.

I have a different kind of restriction: I rent.

People have received spiteful, threating letters from the HOA about parking their cars in their driveways in public sight, or putting vegetable gardens in their backyards where they can't be seen

6 cars in the weed infested back yard. no law against that if they all run. I start them all every weekend.

[AG6JU]

Renting for housing is for many HAM. Specially in city , where buying house is very expensive. but, getting on the air is still possible, I had many QSO with indoor antenna both on HF and 2 meter FM. just not as good as those with large outdoor antenna.

[K8JD]

I have XYL restrictions.
"Towers are ugly and too expensive.
You have too many antennas already."

[NI7I]

i have no restrictions beyond what the city imposes. Those are minimal after you stare down the planner who has a Napoleon complex. The
regulations are simply basic safety issues easily handled by presenting the engineers report for the tower you want to put up. I have littlsympathyhy
for those who buy into HOA's. I find it hard to believe that it is as hard to find "suitable" housing outside HOA's.. If I found it that hard to
find unencumbered houses here, I would look somewhere else.. We have a few HOA communities here but there are plenty of houses both old
and new not within HOA's.. In the county there are almost no restrictions. If a person doesnt care to deal with the city's building regulations
he can go outside the limits, maybe 15 miles, and build antennas to his hearts content.

I chose my house for a variety of reasons. One was that it had no antenna restrictions beyond the safety issues that the city planners have.
If there were more restrictions than those, I would have chosen to live some place else. It's just plain stupid to buy a house with more
restrictions than you are happy with. If you do, it's even more stupid to complain about making ridiculous. It's rediculous to ask the feds
to stepremedyd legislate a remidy for your stupidity and make it easier for you to pursue your hobby..

[AB2T]

No real limits here because I use wire antennas. About half of the plot (about one and a half acres total) is wetland. If I wanted to put up a vertical mounted on a pole, or even a tower, it'd be strictly illegal to do so on the wetlands. Wetlands don't have to be wet on the surface to be considered wetland -- sometimes even moisture six inches below the ground is enough. Also, the boundaries of a wetland are determined by soil composition. The legal penalties would be pretty high for anyone who would even attempt to pour concrete on the wetlands.

73, Jordan

[AB2T]

People have received spiteful, threating letters from the HOA about parking their cars in their driveways in public sight, or putting vegetable gardens in their backyards where they can't be seen

No veggies? There are some commercial establishments which plant "decorative cabbage" along the storefront.

Bizarre. My neighbor has a large boxed vegetable patch (she's a master gardener), and people visit her house just to _admire_ her garden.

Maybe it's a West Coast thing. Then again, HOA's aren't common in this part of New England.

73, Jordan

[N4UM]

HOA - a four letter word!