My trees are very thick in one part of my property, and I did not have much luck with conventional methods for getting wire in trees.  By accident I found a professional tree climber.  He came over and helped me put up a 1000 ft. loop antenna.  He had all the tools, trimmed the branches, cut away potential deadfall, arranged everything as I wanted it, and did not charge an outrageous fee.  He could climb a tree like a monkey.  What a find!

When I first got licensed in '95, it was a 10-day wait to get the ticket.  But when I upgraded to advanced, I waited a little while to apply for a new sequential call sign.  I went throught the ARRL-VEC for the call sign change.  Stuck the application in the mail on a Wednesday (from Delaware) and on Saturday a.m. the new call was in the database.  Great service!

The forum is a great resource--espcially the one on elmers.  Thanks and keep up the good work.

73, Lee - KE3YD

I guess I'm lucky!  My development has a whole catalog of do's and don'ts in its restrictions, but the only restriction against antennas is that they have to be on your roof and/or behind your house.  We were too remote for cable tv availability when the development was started, so I think they didn't put in an antenna restriction because of that.  We now have cable (and cable modem too!), but when the restrictions were re-written there was no change in the antenna restrictions.  The feeling was that those who had already invested in antennas for tv should not have to remove them.  Though I was not a ham when I purchased here, the policy has benefited me.  I have vhf/uhf antennas all over my roof, wire running throughout my trees, and plan to install a tower next year.  I stayed involved when the restrictions were re-written but did not find it necessary to raise any objections.

For those who are not as lucky there are some stealth options.