What You’ve Told Us…

Reader Survey, June 2002

Our April survey asked about your experiences with antenna restrictions. Our first question asked about the type of home in which you live. Nearly three quarters of you (72%) live in private homes without a homeowners’ association exercising control over what you may or may not do with or to your home. Among the rest of you, 49% (14% of total) live in a private home with a homeowners’ association; 19% (5% of total) own a condo, co-op, or townhome; 11% (3%) own a mobile home; 15% (4%) rent a house or apartment; and 6% (2%) live someplace else (on your boat?). Among those who don’t live in a private home without a homeowners’ association, 68% are aware of restrictions on installing antennas and/or towers where they live. Of that group, 50% says those restrictions are spelled out in CC&Rs (deed restrictions), 42% have them written into homeowner association rules, 11% in their rental lease, 17% answered “other,” and 14% said the restrictions are not spelled out in writing. Those restrictions include: a total ban on amateur antennas (8%); ban on all outdoor amateur antennas (22%); total ban on radio transmitting (3%); some antennas permitted, subject to approval process (25%); some permitted, subject to restrictions (11%); other (8%); and none (14%).

We next asked everyone if they’d ever applied for permission to put up an amateur tower or antenna. Overall, 26% said yes; 74% said no. Among those who had requested permission, 73% of those who live in private homes without a homeowners’ association had their request approved as submitted, 11% had them approved with modifications, 3% were approved on appeal, and 8% were denied altogether. It’s a very different story for those who need approval from someone other than their municipal government. In that group, only 33% of requests were approved as submitted, another 33% were approved with modifications, none were approved on appeal, and 42% were rejected outright. Finally, among those respondents living with and familiar with antenna restrictions, 83% of those dealing only with local governments feel their rules “reasonably accommodate” amateur operation; but among those dealing with homeowner associations, condo boards, etc., 63% feel the rules do not “reasonably accommodate” amateur operation. Clearly, there is a significant disparity here.

Thank you for your responses. This month’s winner of a free one-year subscription to CQ is F. R. Cartier, W6FC, of North Hampton, New Hampshire.

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