ZBA Notes, what is important and what isn’t
I just finished reading the
opinion. It was very interesting. Although it is
tremendously positive, it certainly
leaves lots of room for the ZBA to limit
you to a much smaller
installation.
Here are a couple of
comments and suggestions for you to consider as you
educate the ZBA about your proposed
multi-tower installation: 1. The
public has prejudices about the kinds of amateur radio activities that
are beneficial to the
community. The most positive one is clearly emergency
communications. Second is the legitimate
pursuit of research, education and
advancement of communication
technologies. DXing and contesting pursuits do NOT
make an effective selling point
to the public and typical zoning authorities. 2. Proposals for multiple towers supporting
multiple separate antennas send
the message that some of the
antennas and supports may be superfluous. 3. To save face, the board must show that
it has had an active role in the
application of the regulations. You
must give them information supporting the
notion that your proposed
installation already contains compromises designed to
meet the legitimate zoning needs
of the town. And, you must decide what area of
your proposal can be further
compromised in public - to give the board the
additional "win" they need
to have.
So, what to do?
1. Make the case that your antenna system
is designed to enable extremely
effective local and long-distance
emergency communications. Establish your
credibility by demonstrating that you
have been an active participant in these
kinds of activities. Get a
statement from someone important in the local
emergency services that supports the
need for a system with the sophistication
you are proposing. Show exactly
how your installation will fit into the
emergency infrastructure.
2. Make the additional case that your
proposed installation is the minimum
necessary [or even a compromise] to
pursue research on propagation on 160m and
that the height is absolutely
critical for experiments that you are pursuing on
VHF/UHF.
3. Avoid discussion of contesting and DXing as casual pursuits. Mention them
only in the context of empirical
testing.
4. Show that you are serious about
emergency communications, technology
advancement, teaching and research by
presenting the board with past papers and
articles that you have written and
published as a result of your amateur radio
work.
5. To demonstrate your need for a
multiple-tower installation, show that the
three towers are designed to work
together as a system. You will be testing
phased arrays of side-by-side
stacks of yagis and loops. The spacing of the
towers is, in fact, a compromise
that you are willing to live with. It would be
ideal to erect more towers with
exactly the right spacing for each band. You
will also be experimenting with
the towers themselves as a single antenna
constructed of three vertical elements.
Note again that the ideal height of
these elements is 132 feet, but
that you are willing to live with the added
expense and degraded performance
that you will get from the shortened elements
in order to help address the
concerns of your neighbors and the ZBA. Charts and
graphs showing expected
performance trade-offs are helpful here.
GL,
Jim (k1ir)