During a January 12 Capitol Hill hearing, US House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chair Rep Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), called the Amateur Radio Parity Act “a commonsense bill” and urged his colleagues to support it. H.R. 1301 was one of four telecoms bills that came before his panel.
“As a ham radio operator, I’m acutely aware of the passion that Amateur Radio operators have for their service,” Walden told the subcommittee. “Despite its widespread use and importance in times of emergencies, land-use restrictions in some areas have prioritized esthetics over the rights of hams. H.R. 1301 seeks to ensure that Amateur Radio operators get a fair shake and protection fromunnecessary bans on their equipment by instructing the FCC to adopt rules to this end.”
Walden said he’s aware of suggestions that the bill would open the door to 40 foot towers in townhome backyards. “That’s not the case,” he assured his subcommittee colleagues. “Ham equipment can be as small as over-the-air digital television antennas becoming popular with ‘cord cutters.’ I’m sure that Amateur Radio operators’ communications deserve no less protection than access to prime time television.”
In his remarks, the bill’s sponsor, Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), pointed out that most House members have a few hundred radio amateurs living in their districts. He explained that hams in some neighborhoods “are outright prohibited” from erecting antennas on their properties, “even as small as a 4 millimeter diameter wire that might be placed under an awning or laid flat against the house.”
Kinzinger cited Amateur Radio’s role in emergency communication support and noted the comments of FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, to the effect that when conventional communication systemss go down, Amateur Radio is often the last line of defense.
Kinzinger said his bill’s “reasonable accommodation standard” would not mandate placement, size, or esthetics regarding an outdoor antenna, leaving ham radio operators and homeowners associations to decide those issues.
“We just simply add the same standard that has been used successfully in municipal areas to other areas,” he concluded.
HR 1301 would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communications to private land-use restrictions, such as deed covenants, conditions, and restrictions. The bill has attracted 116 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. An identical US Senate measure, S. 1685, has attracted 3 cosponsors. It cleared the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation last November.
More information about the legislation is on the ARRL Amateur Radio Parity Act web page.
Source:ARRL
More
Reshaping ARRL Objectives, Refocusing ARRL HQ Structure is New CEO’s Goal
A plan by ARRL CEO Howard Michel, WB2ITX, to reshape and reorganize the management structure at ARRL Headquarters will go into effect on Monday, Febru... Read more
CQ Magazine October 2015
The October issue of CQ is our annual Emergency Communications Special, with a special focus on amateur radio involvement in healthcare and public hea... Read more
Baofeng UV-82×3 Triband Ham Radio Review and Power Testing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkZheUgugdQ Read more
When Can I Get an Amp for Ham Radio?
When Can I Get an Amp for Ham Radio? Read more
AM Rally on April 1-3 Weekend an Opportunity to Try a Vintage Mode
If you’re not familiar with full-carrier amplitude modulation (AM) or have never used it on the air, you’ll have a chance during the AM Rally during t... Read more
US Senate Confirms Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr to Full FCC Terms
The US Senate has confirmed Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr to full 5-year terms as FCC commissioners. Starks, who most recently had served as assist... Read more
FSQCALL – New Digital Mode
A Directed Messaging System for FSQ Introducing FSQCall Sending text using FSQ is generally very reliable, certainly more so than other digital modes... Read more
Simple Multi-Band Vertical Dipole by DJ0IP
Simple Multi-Band Vertical Dipole This simple multi-band vertical described below will give you very good performance on 40 through 10m and eve... Read more
Search by Amateur Radio Call-Sign – Facebook
Now you can search by call-sign in Facebook Type into the top facebook search bar: Read more
Using Morse code, girl alerts police to pregnant teen being held at knifepoint in Monroe County
by Manuel Gamiz Jr W hen police didn’t get an answer late last month at a Pocono Summit home where they had been told a pregnant teen was being held a... Read more
ARRL Foundation Announces the Frankford Radio Club Scholarship
The Frankford Radio Club Scholarship will join the growing list of scholarships administered by the ARRL Foundation. The Frankford Radio Club (FRC) is... Read more
Icom PoC Full Duplex Radio System, Nationwide Coverage Over 4G / LTE Mobile Phone Network
Icom’s new PoC (Push-to-Talk Over Cellular) radio system allows you to communicate with your two-way radio system over a 4G / LTE closed network. Now... Read more
World Amateur Radio Day !
Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on that day in 1925 that the In... Read more
Antennas Vs Trees
Jeff, KD8KPT, asks about the logistics of putting antennas up in his trees. Read more
Warning: file_get_contents(https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqrznow.com%2Fsubcommittee-chair-h-r-1301-sponsor-testify-on-behalf-of-amateur-radio-parity-act%2F): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/qrznow/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 151
