For the second time in as many weeks,
there have been complaints fired at Amateur Radio operators over here in NZ.
In the first case, the neighbours of a Ham in Ashburton here, took exception to the 5 aerials owned by the Ham, even though the Ham was living in the area, before the neighbours built next door (on both sides of him).
And they came up with the idea that the Amateur's tower and other aerials MUST be to blame for thier TV Interference and various other Electrical problems and were looking to the local Council to have the offending aerials dismantled.
In the second case, a Radio Ham called the Police after having tresspassers on his property and one of these people, were caught attempting to cut the Guy-wires on his 23m tower.
The people had complained to the Authorities, but had not got the results that they were after, so took things into thier own hands.
The first case ended up in the District Court here and the Judge dismissed the case, saying that the Ham in question had tried to demonstrate that the Interference was not caused by his equipment, however the group of neighbours refuted this.
They also refuted the idea that the passing 220kV lines had anything to do with it either!.
Sure, towers aren't the best looking things around, but hey, in an Emergency and there are no other Communications available, whose going to complain?.
Let's not get down on our Radio Hams, they provide a community service after all.
The point of this thread is, has there been any such similar things, fired at Hams where you are?.

Is there an FCC type government agency in NZ? If so, I wonder if they have anything to say about someone tampering with an antenna?

"the neighbours of a Ham in Ashburton here, took exception to the 5 aerials owned by the Ham, even though the Ham was living in the area, before the neighbours built next door"

This is nothing new by me. NY City people moving up here try this cr#p all the time. They say their little country getaway is being tarnished. Meanwhile they buy into established areas. Regardless of the fact that they are only there less than part time.
$$$$ runs things! Even if you're in the right you can lose.

I feel for your friend.
"Good fences make good neighbors"

[This message has been edited by Speedy Petey (edited 11-16-2003).]

People are weird. I live in a rural area and there are 5 or 6 other homes in the area, all on 3+ acres. They move here from the city and are so frightened of the dark that they install 400W HPS “security lights” available from the POCO. I have had the county zoning board cite 3 of them and force shielding as the zoning code says “…direct or reflected glare shall not extend beyond the property where the source is installed”. One of those cited had his light removed as he said “I don’t want to just light my property. I want to see what’s going on in the area”. I keep my 3-1/2 acres totally free of intrusive light and sit on my rear porch and watch deer, coyotes, fox, raccoon, etc.
Rowdy

Trumpy:

Here is the word from the USA:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/antenna-restrictions.html

Basically, Amateur Operators have certain rights under Federal law.

I always slow down and look at antenna arrays lots of this stuff is home brew and can almost look like artwork to me

[This message has been edited by dougwells (edited 11-16-2003).]

Unfortunately, this kind of harassment is almost as old as amateur radio itself.

Hams have been blamed for radio/TV interference, all manner of electrical/electronic failures, and more recently, cancer, birth defects, and other problems allegedly "caused" by their signals. I have a friend who is a shortwave LISTENER who gets constant interference complaints from his neighbors because of his large RECEIVING antenna array! Many communities have tried to enact legislation regulating antenna height and placement, but the FCC invalidates some of them under "PRB-1", which grants rights to amateur stations which are FEDERALLY licensed, as opposed to local or state antenna ordinances.

Unfortunately, the PRB-1 protections are NOT extended to hams living in "planned communities", those with deed restrictions against antennas, annoying homeowner's associations or hams who live in rental housing.

Does NZ have an equivalent to the "Part 15" rules here in the states? These state (in part) that as long as the amateur station is operating within acceptable limits, any interference caused to consumer electronics is the responsibility of the person being interfered with. While falling back on this might not be the best way to deal with the neighbors, it IS the law, when all other "good faith" attempts to resolve the problem fail.

Yes Trumpy, there IS a grinch.

As referenced above, we have PRB-1 which is supposed to bring some relief. Personally, I live in a 73 year old home in just as old a neighborhood, so NO restrictions.

My neighbors never said a word as I Installed 3- 65 foot wooden poles on which to place my antenna, but much of the property has been bought up and the trees replaced with $6-800,000 homes, I can probably expect a complaint soon.

During a recent hurricane, the phone central office lost power and we had no comm except "roving" hams. Just this week, during a very high wind event the same thing happened, but if the yuppies can't watch "Trading Places" there'll be havoc to pay I'm sure.

I have had one friend who sustains vandalism on a regular basis.

This is a problem in the U.K. as well.

People just don't seem to understand that in many cases the interference is due to the cheap design of their own domestic receivers. You must have heard it before: "It can't be anything wrong with my TV, because it works fine until you transmit."

I thought about getting a ham license ever since I was about 13, but never did. I'm still a keen SWL though, and when I lived in Cornwall I also used CB to keep in touch with friends and for local events.

I received regular complaints from a couple of neighbors, and one was affected especially badly. Turned out he was using tatty old corroded coax and about three pre-amps in line! The problem was that these people couldn't accept that their equipment was to blame, even when a neighbor to my other side told them that she never experienced any problems.

After that I got the blame every time a passing car with badly suppressed ignition caused so much as a flicker. And yes, one of my RECEIVING antennas was also blamed for radiating interference!

Where I live now, I have a friend just around the corner who has problems with a couple of neighbors. He's tried offering assistance with filters etc. and to oblige where possible by avoiding operating on bands at certain times, but the complaints are still rolling in. He's now reached the point of just referring them to the Radiocommunications Agency.

On the city types moving out to the country, we've experienced that problem in England as well.

There have been cases where someone has moved into a house next door to a farm and then complained about a cockerel crowing every morning.

Others have tried to have church bells silenced on a Sunday morning after moving to a house right opposite.

Pathetic, isn't it?

Same problem here.

City folks moving out here because it's quaint and "earthy". And then wanting us to change our lifestyle to be more like city folks.

My uncle's on the town council. A lady just moved into an old farm house (probably to "restore" it instead of just live in it) and called my uncle demanding a street light be put up. He told her to put one up if she wanted one but the town sure wasn't going to do it. She got mad and told him "But you don't know how dark it is out here."

Like many others here, I do not own or operate any HAM Radio equipment; but I do like the idea of others using said equipment.

Also will practically stop to check out some interesting HAM Antenna arrays + tower structures.
Seen operators with multiple Antenna setups around their yard - obviously being driven from multiple Radio sets (like ones using different band widths: i.e. HF, VHF, UHF, etc.).

I had a troublesome experience with our former next-door neighbor and their high power HAM Radio. Its been mentioned a few times before, as to the extents of RFI, so I'll just briefly mention the scenarios.

Certain channels on the HAM Transmission would completely kill our TV reception. Much more than just stepping on certain channels - it would overpower every channel.

I brought it to the neighbor's attention, so as to figure what Hz(s) were being used, and I could build filters to place at RF inputs, on AC power inputs, on line level inputs, and on our POTS Telephone circuits.

Didn't have too much luck with the neighbor, so I just "Guesstimated" notch points, and made Low-Pass or High-Pass filters as to the signal line used.

FCC covers the laws to RF Transmissions, and they suggest discussing the problem first before trying to do anything legal or stupid. The law (article) clearly says the party which is receiving the RFI must take the actions of eliminating it, and does not say anything about the party doing the Transmitting having to do anything extra to reduce interference (they do suggest discussions, as previously noted).
This is fine with me, and would not change it for anything!

Like said before, Antennas + Towers look cool to me, and I encourage the use of Amature Radio.
I do not understand how the site of Antennas is offensive to others, but can understand how annoying extreme RFI can be!
However, if a person does not attempt to rectify the problem and discuss it with the HAM operator, that's absolutely ridiculous behavior.
Bringing in Law Enforcement personnel is a joke + waste of that agency's time.
Taking personnel and destructive actions is COMPLETELY uncalled for!
This goes the same for both parties involved.

Just my $0.02 (2¢)

Scott35

This may be a little off topic but this does not sound like the Amateur radio operators that I have known. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3046473939

Speedy Petey:

I'm in the Poconos. I feel your pain, brother!

My uncle is a HAM guy. Had a 50 some odd foot tower up in my grandparents backyard for years, never had a complaint, (Even from the aircraft on approach to the little local airport a quarter mile away!) until THEY moved in from across the rivers.

He wasn't using it anymore, since he had moved away, so we took it down for him to take to his new home, where he has used it for nearly 20 years, miles from Trenton, and to my knowledge has never had a complaint.

No offense to licensed, competent amateur operators anywhere… but OTOH, there was this true white-trash trailerhouse neighbor with his 200-watt ceebee leenier {that flooded absolutely everything from on-hook phones through UHF channel 58}—where the only success I had was to run 12THHN through the garage rafters tied to the stinger of an ancient AIRCO 0.60 duty-cycle welder and light off the TIG HF feature, with its lovely tungsten spark gap. [Sometimes you just have to fight harmonics with harmonics.]

Guys,
In NZ here, we don't have a thing like PRB-1, unfortunately.
Erecting a Radio Tower can be a very risky business and I'm only talking about the planning process.
Depending on where you live here, there are all sorts of Laws and so forth (the biggest one of all, the RMA (Resource Management Act)).
Then your local Council will require you to get a Stuctural Engineer to draw up plans for you and make sure the thing is safe to build.
Steel towers are required to be constructed by a Certified Welder and his work is then inspected by the Structural Engineer.
This all takes time and costs a fortune and considering the hieght of some of the TV Aerial masts here, seems really un-necessary!.
But, one thing that really rubs me the wrong way, is the fact that 95% of us Radio hams here, are only too happy to help with RFI complaints, but most people just run straight to the Authorities, often without any real evidence.
It's also amazing how many members of the general public, can't tell the difference between a Ham tower and a Cell tower.
One guy over here was fitting the aerials to his new tower and ended up with a crowd of people at his gate screaming and demanding that he remove the Cell tower from his property.
The tower (minus aerials) had been standing for 3 months.
Bjarney,
The use of Linear Amps on gear like CB Radio's is something that I am hotly against.
Having been a regular CB'er since I was 14, CB hasn't got the best of reputations, but idiots like you were describing don't make the CBer persona any better either!.