HOA, an asylum for the preservation of malignant mediocrity! If it ain't middle of the road mainstream common practice that matches all the neighbors it aint.  "An they all lived in little boxes, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky and they all look the same."

KF7CG

John, as a former resident of Ammon, ID, I fully understand and agree with your post. Too many people have no conception of the differences between populated area EMMCOM and sparsely populated areas. I have an uncle in the area, so have spent some time in your county. Both winter and summer.

EMCOM is a different animal in the sparsely populated areas. The areas are more fun to live in too.

KF7CG

Still remember, many courts have held that if a "community" establishes a HOA and it provides benefits like snow removal, trash pickup, or other community service that accrue to the benefit of the home owner that home owner can be bound by the HOA rules.

If I remember my states correctly this happened several years back in NC. An Amateur lived a half mile or so from a HOA community, when the developer bought the property between the Amateur and the main road it included the easement for his driveway. The developer paved part of the driveway as a development street. In the course of time the HOA took over maintenance and snow removal on subdivision streets. The  Amateur at that point was considered by the courts in the area to be bound by the rules of the HOA including the ones prohibiting outside antennas. He brenefitted from snow removal and road maintenance even though not by his choosing. Still bound by the rules.

Not just Amateur Radio can be bound by arbitrary and excessive HOA regulations. Try the couple in Florida that was, at the height of the real estate downturn, told to sell their home or get an abortion. The over 55 couple had gotten pregnant and HOA rules forbade children under 18 from the development. It made the news briefly but I never heard the final outcome.

HOAs need limits to their powers, not just for Amateurs, but for the common person.

KF7CG

You can place a 2.4 or 5.4 wifi dongle 802.11 b/g/n at the focal point and go fishing for open or neighborhood WIFI signals. It there is a library, McDonalds, Starbuck, or many others within line of sight or even slightly out within a few miles, free internet access.

The cure for some of the strictest restrictions such as

"HOAs are now beginning to police antennas on vehicles under the premise of "no broadcasting" or "no antenna maintained on any lot". Others are writing restrictions against "hidden antennas" and "antennas in the attic".
"

is to help them with their enforcement so that they have to ban baby monitors, cell phones, wireless entertainment devices, uverse, xfinity and other wireless video devices. With a little care you can force them to ban something or rewrite the regs every week or so. Make sure that they comply with all open meeting rules that may apply also. If they want strictly enforced regulations, come to their assistance.

KF7CG

Simple matter of fact is: You can't avoid HOAs unless you are indepedently wealthy. Most areas have now succumbed to the if it is good in the big city it is good here philosophy. Many jurisdictions allow a majority of neighbors to form an HOA and force encompassed home owners into the HOA. In some areas the courts have ruled that is correct as the encompassed homes gain a benefit from the HOA and therefore must pay dues and abide by the HOA rules. Unless you have a very large parcel of land you may be sued by a consortium of neighbors for destroy the aesthetic value of their property. In Tennessee your property may even be annexed into a city without your consent,

Therefore, the HOA problem is not one that can be totally avoided. You may only do your best to avoid it and sometime the choice boils down to living in a "safe" neighbor, driving 40 miles one way to work, or being without a livelyhood. You just make you choice. Sometimes (frequency varies) you just accept the HOA under extreme duress.

KF7CG

Also remember. the RFI problem might be in the home alarm system. Some of them have little to no rfi rejections and just the normal radiated signal from your antenna might be too much. If that is the case it is better solved at the alarm system.

KF7CG

Move to the interior NorthWest and you will see that SAR groups teaming with the local Amateur population is a necessity. There is not the funds nor the manpower for the local paid and strictly SAR groups to afford or maintain the repeaters necessary. The local clubs provide and maintain repeaters with excellent coverage as a matter of enjoying the hobby and club pride.

Of course many SAR members are also Amateurs.

Now to some of the whacker comments. I guess that any Amateur in Tennessee that has Call Sign Plates is a whacker! All Amateur Callsign plates in Tennessee bear the legend EMERGENCY instead of the county of issuance. Therefore, Tennessee is home to a lot of whackers.

Most of the Skywarn folks, have callsign plates and multiple antennae on their vehicles. Do I live in whacker central? Or are some of the folks here just bitter and off base?

KF7CG

Strange, I used to live within a long drive of R and L. Now it is mail order distance only, but I have never had a bad experience in my dealings with them. The store looks like a converted corner grocery store and is loaded to the point of clutter with all vintages of Amateur Radio Gear (or was, I haven't been there in person for quite a few years) but it is a great place to shop whether by phone, internet, or in person. My wife even got friendly service when she ordered a radio for me by phone. It was a surprise birthday present. She doesn't know radio so had to ask a lot of questions.

Still, friendly service. She likes them a lot.

KF7CG

Having dealt with DirecTV more than I care to and still using their service, I have learned a few tricks. Go on their serivce contract, unless they have changed it, it is month to month and only about $6 a month. With the contract in place, give them a bunch of calls. When the service tech arrives, put someone else with him and then give the system H*** while he is there to observe. You may have to clean up the hair behind him.

Be sure to have a copy of Part 15 around and the Part 15 note on the equipment. If you are leasing the equipment then they "own" the problem.

KF7CG

Furthermore, an unlicensed individual may operate an Amamateur station in the United States if a licensed control operator is present. All the identification rules, frequency rules, power rules must be followed and correct operation is the responsibility of the control operator.

It is not the voice (fist) on the air that must be licensed, it is the control operator. There are some third party communicaitons rules to possibly complicate things, but that applies more often to international contacts.

KF7CG

That is why you put them in your speed-dial and everytime you have an RFI issue with the DVR you call their tech suport and log a call. After about 10 to 15 logged service issues you have enough evidence of the service not be of merchantable quality and the Federal and State Trade guys will have a field day with them if they don't let you cancel without penalty. Become a large enough annoyance and they will eat the early cancellation fee to get rid of you.

KF7CG

The problem is in their equipment! They have a duty to the consumer to provide their service, since they could not/would not provide the service, you are at least entitle to a charge free cancellation.

Everytime the system messed up I would have bugged them until they fixed it. It is their problem, make them eat the charges.

KF7CG

You will find that its loss characteristics are very good at HF. The mismatch between 75 ohms and 50 ohms is only 1.5 which is often ignored by the autotuners in many of the rigs. Also, the nominal impedance of a half wave dipole is 72 ohms, that sounds like a good match to me.

You may have some trouble connecting it with the UHF style connectors and need an adapter for the Type F connectors that are normally used with this type of coax. A female Type F barrel connector a piece of stiff 18awg wire and a PL259 can be used to build an adapter.

Solder one end of the wire to the center pin of the PL259. Insert the other end (trimmed to where it doesn't go too deeply) into one end of the barrel connector and then thread (cross threading expected) the barrel connector into the adapter threads of the PL259 shell. Presto, you now have an F to 259 adapter.

KF7CG

I would like to find a repairable Kenwood TS511s and Matching Power Supply at a reasonable cost somewhere near Nashville, TN. I started my career as an Advanced with one of those and loved it.

It needs to be a local pickup since the power supply/speaker is heavy enough to cost a bloody fortune to ship. They seemed to be somewhat rare even in production. Also known as a Henry Kenwood TS511s, a relative of the T599/R599 Twins.

KF7CG