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Hams For Action (HFA)
Don Schellhardt, Esquire, President
1520 Porter Street
Richmond, Virginia 23224
"mailto:pioneerpath@hotmail.com" pioneerpath@hotmail.com
(804) 433-7268
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AMATEUR RADIO ACTIVIST GROUP MARKS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY,
PONDERS FUTURE ACTION IN CONGRESS
RICHMOND, Va., July 10, 2007 -- Today marked the first birthday of HAMS FOR ACTION (HFA): a group of Amateur Radio operators who want to ease total bans on Amateur Radio antennas by Homeowners Associations (HOAs). As their second year dawns, HFA Members are pondering whether to launch a campaign for the introduction and enactment of corrective legislation in Congress.
Don Schellhardt KI4PMG, a public policy attorney who serves as the group’s current President, stated that “exploring options for action and then narrowing them down” was the key theme of the group’s first year. Action by Congress, he said, is the primary option that remains viable between now and July 10, 2008 -- “but we don’t know whether there are enough hams out there who are willing to lobby their legislators”.
At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), HFA filed a Petition For Rulemaking last summer, seeking “partial and conditional overrides” of total bans on Amateur Radio antennas by HOAs. The HFA proposal contained several concessions to HOAs, including a generally applicable limit of 20 feet on the height of antenna towers, but the proposal was denied by the FCC in spite of these concessions. HFA then filed an appeal, which is still pending before the Commission.
HAMS FOR ACTION Press Release
July 10, 2007
Page Two
The group also tried to interest the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), which represents the Amateur Radio community in general, in undertaking more vigorous advocacy for an easing of total bans on ham antennas by HOAs. “Frankly,” Schellhardt said, “HFA wouldn’t exist if the national ARRL had been putting more effort into lobbying for HOA antenna reform. We formed our group to fill a leadership vacuum left by ARRL, and we’ve been trying to put ourselves out of business all year. However, ARRL staff seems bound and determined not to take this issue seriously.” “ARRL’s Board has been responsive,” Schellhardt added. “Last summer, after receiving communications from HFA, the Board released $5,000 in additional funding for ARRL’s grassroots lobbying program. This winter, in response to a letter writing campaign, the Board made HOA antenna reform ARRL’s No. 1 priority in Congress. Despite all this, however, the HOA antenna reform bill from last year still hasn’t been re-introduced in Congress -- and ARRL staff refuses to even talk with HFA about strategy and tactics. It looks to us like ARRL’s staff isn’t listening to ARRL’s Board.”
HFA raised and spent $1,600 for its first year efforts. ARRL has been paying an outside lobbying firm $72,000 a year to lobby for hams in Congress. “HFA,” Schellhardt continued, “has now done everything it can to initiate action by the FCC and/or ARRL. In the process, we have demonstrated that neither one seems willing to budge. Now we know that it’s Congress or nobody when it comes to possible Federal action, and it’s HFA or nobody when it comes to lobbying Congress.”
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