The Ham Radio Friendly HOA Bill needs your support if it is to become Law...

This article about the call to action on fellow amateur radio ops signing the new ham friendly HOA Bill is shared by ARRL North Texas Section Manager Steven Lott Smith KG5VK

Please read it and or sign it
Signing it takes less than three clicks of your mouse after you enter your call sign

How can you send these letters? It is easy.
Go to — https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ — enter your call sign and click on “Send

However, many of you will want to read the details
which follow below...........

The ARRL has launched for us a Ham Friendly HOA Bill Campaign

This can become law if we as fellow amateurs sign the request for it to be so.

Read more here.......(Easy to share Link)
https://sdxa.blogspot.com/2025/09/hoa-bill.html

Or skip the Blog Link and read it below............

YOU CAN HELP US

CHANGE THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF AMERICAN HAMS
The ARRL is focused on reducing legal restraints on the ability of American
Amateur Radio Operators to engage in the active practice and enjoyment of Amateur Radio.
One of the most insidious and increasing threats to the survival of Amateur Radio
and our ability to serve our communities and Nation, as we are required to do by Federal
regulation, is the proliferation of private land use restrictions that prohibit the installation of
outdoor antennas and that sometimes actually deny Federally licensed Amateurs from
operating any amateur radios, regardless of where their antennas are located — in their
attics, hidden in trees, or mounted on their vehicles.

Federal law — since 1996 — has guaranteed to every American — except Amateur
Radio Operators — the right to erect antennas outside or on their residences for the
purpose of TV reception, satellite TV and internet access, wireless internet access and even
wireless internet redistribution. But Amateur Radio operators are denied the equal right to
erect comparable antennas.

Since 2005 Federal law has also guaranteed to every American the right to proudly
display the American Flag by installing flagpoles in their yards. But, despite that right to
install vertical poles in their yards — American Radio Amateurs are denied the right to use
those vertical flag poles as vertical antennas.

We believe the denial — to licensed Amateur Radio Operators — of the rights
guaranteed to all non-Amateur Radio licensed American homeowners — the right to install
antennas on the land they own — is without justification and should not be permitted to
continue.

To eliminate these private land use restrictions, the ARRL has worked over the past
several years with our elected officials to draft Congressional legislation — H.R. 1094 in the
U.S. House of Representatives and S. 459 in the U.S. Senate — that when passed will extend
to all Hams the right to operate from their homes and the right to install antennas on the
land they own. We have bipartisan support for this legislation.

BUT, WE NEED YOUR HELP TO PASS THIS LEGISLATION!!!

How can you help? By sending a letter to your Representative and Senators asking
that they co-sponsor and support H.R. 1094 and S. 459.

How can you send these letters? It is easy.
Go to — https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ — enter your call sign and click on “Send

My Letters” and your letters will be delivered to our Washington legislative team for hand
delivery to your Representative and Senators.

Does your individual letter matter? YES.

Your Representative and Senators need to know that the passage of this
legislation is important to you.

Your letter could be the difference in whether we are able to pass H.R. 1094 and S. 459.

Go to — https://send-a-letter.org/hoa/ — and help us by sending your letters to your Representative and Senators

Any questions please contact me

LottsPhoto@gmail.com
Or my Section Manager email address
KG5VK@ARRL.ORG

A copy of your emails to my Gmail address goes direct to my iPhone
The SM addressed emails, only goes to my Desktop CPU

Club officers email me or Your Section Manager for the file your Club Board can use to sign on behalf of your members
Please keep in mind any club members should personally sign the one using the online tool which is than three clicks easy !!!

Cheers!

Steve
KG5VK

 

Thanks for the post, Steve. We need this! Especially the 43' allowance for a vertical. See excerpt below that outlines permissible antennas without prior approval. The full text of each bill is available from congress.gov.

• H.R.1094
• S.459

“(e) Antennas that do not require prior approval.—A requirement in a private land use restriction for an amateur operator to obtain prior approval for the installation of an amateur station antenna may not be adopted or enforced with respect to any of the following types of amateur station antennas:
“(1) 1 METER OR LESS IN DIAMETER OR DIAGONAL MEASUREMENT.—An antenna for use by an amateur operator that is less than 1 meter in diameter or diagonal measurement, or having other measurements prescribed by the Commission.

“(2) FLAGPOLE ANTENNAS.—A flagpole, capable of dual use as a flagpole and an amateur station antenna, not greater than 43 feet in height above ground.

“(3) WIRE ANTENNAS.—Minimally obtrusive wire antennas, of a length necessary for the frequency of use intended.

“(4) VERTICAL ANTENNAS.—Vertical antennas, not to exceed 43 feet in height above ground, including collapsible whip and tilt-over antennas.

 

In as much as I sympathize with the idea, an HOA is a contract that the buyers entered into when they bought the house.

Don't want restrictions?

Don't sign the contract, don't buy the house.

Let the arguments begin.

 

HOAs actually help amateurs become better "emcon" operators. You learn to set up and tear down antennas quicky and efficiently. Huge permanent antennas aren't needed.

POTA proves it everyday and the HOAs will show that in any Congressional hearings.

 

My wife and I have submitted our letters in support of the bill, and I have contributed to the "Pass the Bill" fund. This legislation is long overdue.

73,
Russ

 

I am wondering where in the Amateur Radio Regulations are we, as amateur radio operators, REQUIRED to serve our communities?
The wording from ARRL is in red and bolded above.
Steve @KG5VKI, can you or any other ARRL officer answer this question?

Tom
K5TEE

 

Send mine. Long overdue.

 

"While the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service [emphasis added]."
https://www.arrl.org/news/it-seems-to-us-not-an-emergency-radio-service

 

There is nothing in the CFRs the require you to serve your community, Amateur Radio is strictly a voluntary avocation, MARS, CAP or Any other Government Group may have their own regulations, but for a licensed Amateur not obligated to a group, no such requirement exists on the Federal level, now on the State level, in an Emergency, some states have laws on the books by which first responders may impress you in service if your expertise or labor is required.

 

Where was the ARRL when it failed to get the hobby included in this action the League has cited:

"Congress in 1996 ordered the FCC to create the OTARD (the “Over-The-Air-Reception-Device”) rules that render unenforceable all restrictions on the installation of TV antennas, satellite dishes, and wireless internet antennas." ​

If the ARRL's lobbyist nearly 30 years ago tried but was unsuccessful, my letter today would want to be informed by how to overcome that opposition. The League's materials do not specify.

 

Hmm.

If the antenna doesn't create a visual/electrical disturbance and is easy to install at the operator's expense, why not?
It might not be the "ideal" antenna but it is far better than an internal one.

Probably will take some careful planning by the operator and the HOA.

 

Show me where an antenna creates an electrical disturbance. Perhaps a transmitter connected to that antenna might, but the antenna?

 

A 43' foot vertical, on a 1/4 acre lot? Tell me, where will it fall? Is that a 43' vertical on TOP the house, or next to it? Big antennas on post stamp sized lots. Great idea :/

For many hams the limit isn't just the HOA restrictions, but its the fact that they want steel yard on a button.

 

The ARRL is going the way of the dinosaur, I do live in an HOA but don't have any restrictions as far as wire or vertical antenna's. My point is the ARRL should have been working on this feverishly all these years. Perception is, they haven't.

 

I purposely purchased a home without an HOA so my radio hobby wouldn't be affected. However, I do think HOAs overstep their bounds - the HOA has more rights than the owner. So I clicked the link to send the message supporting the bill. I cautiously optimistic it will pass this time, but am prepared to rinse and repeat until amateur radio operators have reasonable rights to put up antennas.