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
SV2ASP/A -The position of the Holy Community of Mount Athos for amateur radio emissions from Athos
“RADIOERASITECHNIKES EMISSIONS FROM Athos It is known that long-standing demand of many radio amateurs, for years to come and broadcast from Mou... Read more
Measuring Coax Impedance – Ham Nation 378
Measuring Coax Impedance New ARRL 2019 calendar, Drok LM2596 voltage regulator, winterize your equipment. The new ARRL 2019 calendar is here, Amateur... Read more
WP3C & NP4DX will be QRT – Hurricane Maria
“Here some images of the damage that Hurricane Maria did. The roof of my garage is completely gone, a tower collapsed and all the antennas are b... Read more
News North East News Tyne & Wear It’s 40 years since the CB Radio craze took off across the North East and the UK
BY DAVID MORTON The 1976 number 2 hit single Convoy, by CW McCall, helped spark a CB Radio fad which swept into Britain from the USA Like other crazes... Read more
Unboxing Kenwood TH-D74A
Kenwood TH-D74A 144/220/430 MHz TRIBANDER. Triband Amateur radio packed with convenient features and the advantage of a digital transceiver with D-STA... Read more
ContestConsole switching unit for ICOM radios
ContestConsole Switching Accessory Unit for ICOM radios “produced as the result of customer demand!” Gain full control of your ICOM radio... Read more
High Performance RX Antennas for a Small Lot
Jose Carlos (JC), N4IS, will look at basic concepts of RX antennas and share his experiences with lowband RX antennas on a small lot, including the Wa... Read more
Got an interesting Icom Story, Picture or Video you would like us to Share?
Icom Do you have an interesting Icom story? Would you like to share it with a wider audience? It might be a business application, a special event, or... Read more
KC6MTO – Benicia Police honor Volunteer of the Decade
By Dianne de Guzman, Vallejo Times-Herald BENICIA >> When the Benicia Police Department decided to give Ron “Doc” Uhlman the Volunteer of the De... Read more
New QST QuickStats Poll Posted
This month’s QuickStats poll has been posted! Check the QuickStats page and answer these questions . . . • Have you ever repaired your primary transce... Read more
2.5 milliwatt OPERA signal via Es’hail-2 geostationary satellite
Markus Vester DF6NM successfully used the digital mode OPERA to send a 2.5 milliwatt signal on 2.4 GHz through the amateur radio transponder on the Es... Read more
Radio amateurs in the quest for geostationary satellites
Radio amateurs have a long history in satellites: first it was medium sized satellites in low earth and Molniya orbits, but after the free launch oppo... Read more
Airspy HF+ (Coming soon)
Airspy HF+ The Software Defined Radio revolution brought great flexibility in VHF and UHF reception. Today we offer the best wide band receivers which... Read more
Northern California DX Club Launching Initiative to Get Newcomers on HF Bands
The Northern California DX Club (NCDXC) has announced an initiative aimed at getting more new Technician and General class radio amateurs active on HF... Read more
Amateur Radio Volunteers Needed to Support Marine Corps Marathon
Amateur Radio volunteers in the Greater Washington, DC, region are invited to support the 41st running of the US Marine Corps Marathon. The annual eve... 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
