Of Note...

The November 11, 2006 edition of Radio World has published a Commentary written by Don Schellhartd of Hams For Action.

Read it here.

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HAMS FOR ACTION

LETTER To ARRL Leaders

• · HAMS FOR ACTION
• · Don Schellhardt, President

• 2617 East Uintah Street, #D

Colorado Springs, CO 80909

pioneerpath@hotmail.com

(719) 310-0394

URL: www.hamsforaction.net

December 2, 2006

David Sumner K1ZZ

Executive Director, ARRL

225 Main Street

Newington, CT 06111-1494

Joel M. Harrison W5ZN

President, ARRL

528 Miller Road

Judsonia, AR 72081

Jim Weaver K8JE

Chair, ARRL Legislative Program

and ARRL Board Member,

Great Lakes Division

5065 Bethany Road

Mason, OH 45040-8130

Dear Dave, President Harrison and Director Weaver:

As you know, I am the current President of HAMS FOR ACTION (HFA). We are a recently formed group of hams, small in number but spread across the nation, who favor intensive action to achieve partial and conditional overrides of total bans on outdoor ham antennas by Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs). As another objective, we also support partial and conditional overrides of similar antenna bans by landlords.

To this end, we filed a Petition For Rulemaking with the FCC in July of 2006, and we may prepare legislation for introduction in the 110^th Congress if the FCC does not Docket our Petition. We also urged ARRL Board Members to take action, during their Summer Board Meeting, to assign a higher priority to HOA antenna reform and to upgrade the effectiveness of ARRL’s Congressional lobbying capabilities in general.

While HFA has been critical of ARRL, at times, all of the founders of HFA, including me, are also Members of ARRL. We encourage our Members to join ARRL, or remain within it, and work inside ARRL for change. In this spirit, we commend ARRL for the steps it has taken during and after the Summer 2006 Board Meeting:

HFA Letter to ARRL

December 2, 2006

Page 2

• · Tightening of ARRL’s conflict-of-interest regulations to assure greater fairness
• · and efficiency in the awarding of ARRL contracts, presumably including
• · ARRL contracts for the hiring of outside lobbyists
• · Release of $5,000 in additional funding for ARRL’s grassroots lobbying effort
• · And
• · Formation of the new ARRL Legislative Program, under the new leadership of
• · ARRL Board Member Jim Weaver

• · We were disappointed that the ARRL Board did not vote this summer on whether to upgrade the priority that is currently assigned to efforts for HOA antenna reform. We were later encouraged, however, when we learned the ARRL Board will conduct an overall review of ARRL’s legislative objectives during its Winter Board Meeting.

Dave, we understand from press reports that you, personally, requested this overall review of legislative objectives. For this, HFA thanks you and commends you.

We urge ARRL’s Board Members to take the following action at their Winter Meeting:

Elevate HOA antenna reform to a top public policy priority for ARRL,

comparable in importance to restraining BPL -- and more important

than enactment of the Spectrum Protection Act.

Let me add that some HFA Members are interested in joining ARRL’s new Legislative Program, but first they want to know what the Program’s grassroots lobbyists will be lobbying for. HFA does not ask or expect ARRL to make HOA antenna reform the exclusive focus of the program, but we seek assurance that HOA antenna reform legislation will include intensive lobbying on this issue as a major portion of the program.

As a related matter, HFA asks ARRL to consider, in consultation with Representatives Steven Israel, D-NY, and Mike Ross, D-AR, whether the ARRL-endorsed Emergency Communications Consistency Act should be amended in 2007 to make it more “marketable” politically. Notable possibilities include: (a) defining more clearly what constitutes “reasonable accommodation” of outdoor ham antennas, as a way to avoid hammering out the definition through costly and time-consuming litigation; and (b) limiting eligibility for the antenna ban overrides to hams who have been certified as trained and active Emergency Communicators.

HFA Letter to ARRL

December 2, 2006

Page 3

In short:

HFA plans to remain an independent organization, but we certainly believe there is common ground where HFA and ARRL can work together. If ARRL’s Board makes HOA antenna reform a top priority, comparable to BPL, the common ground will expand.

Sincerely,

Don Schellhardt

CC: Kay C. Craigie N3KN, First Vice President

Rick Roderick K5UR, Vice President

Rodney Stafford W6ROD, International Affairs Vice President

Warren G. “Rev” Morton WS7W, ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division

Brian Mileshofsky N5ZGT, ARRL Vice-Director, Rocky Mountain Division

All Other ARRL Directors and Vice-Directors

Patricia Hensley N4ROS, Vice-Director Elect, Roanoke Division

Jeff Ryan K0RM, ARRL Section Manager for Colorado