Please Write Your Congressperson Regarding HR4969 ASAP

A significant and growing number of Amateur Radio operators living outside the protection of PRB-1, the Federal law that provides limited preemption of state and local antenna zoning ordinances, are unable to install even the most modest of outside antennas. They are effectively precluded from using their license privileges at home because PRB-1 does not extend to private deed restrictions, such as CC&Rs and HOA rules. In much of our Division and elsewhere, finding housing near work, schools and medical care without such deed restrictions is increasingly difficult if not impossible to find. An ARRL-sponsored bill now up for consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives, HR4969, would, if passed, direct the FCC to extend the reasonable-accommodation protections of PRB-1 to these Amateurs. Like PRB-1, HR 4969 would not give Amateurs the right to put up whatever they wish. It would simply require HOAs and other private land use regulations to extend reasonable accommodation to Amateurs wishing to erect antennas. As is the case under PRB-1, what constitutes reasonable accommodation will vary on a case-by-case basis.

We have a very short time window to secure the benefits of this legislation, and we need every licensed Amateur, whether or not an ARRL member, to help by asking his Representative to support and co-sponsor this bill. You can find a sample letter that you can customize or send as is, adding just your Representative’s name and your own name and address, on the ARRL Web site. Just click on the HR4969 banner on the home page; then expand the “How Can I Help” section and click on the link to the sample letter. Other sections on the same Web page will help you find your Congressperson’s name and an ARRL address to send your letters for hand-delivery to your Representative’s office. You’ll also find talking points and other information on the same page.

If you can obtain an appointment to meet the Representative or his / her staff locally during the August Recess, please let Vice-Director Marty Woll N6VI (n6vi@arrl.org) or me (n6aa@arrl.org) know, and one of us will try to accompany you to such an appointment and help you prepare for it. Your letters will also help open the doors for possible office visits by ARRL officials in DC during the final pre-election Congressional sessions in September. When you send your letter, please take an extra moment to send Vice-Director Woll either an electronic copy or a short note indicating that it has been sent and stating your Congressional district or Representative’s name. If your Representative accepts e-mail input from constituents, you can use that in addition to (but not in place of) a printed letter. Put your ZIP code in the header and indicate the subject as “Telecommunications – Please Co-Sponsor HR4969.” You can add the text of your written letter in the body of this e-mail message.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Southwestern Division Director: Richard J Norton, N6AA n6aa@arrl.org --------------------------------------------------------------------