Steve Bonine wrote:


1. The development has large lots and the neighbors are pretty laid
back. You buy the house and erect an unobtrusive antenna. Your
neighbors don't notice, and the ones who do don't care.

2. You erect a tower on your tiny lot and hang a bunch of antennas on
it, creating what looks like a masterpiece to your eyes and an eyesore
to your neighbors. Since the people who bought in the development are
particularly sensitive to such things, they make your life miserable
even though they have no legal recourse.

Steve, that is a good point. While I can put up anything within reason,
I have went with unobtrusive antennas. Some of my neighbor know about
the antennas, and some don't.

Get along with the neighbors!


The scenarios are deliberately exaggerated to make the point that the
legal situation is only one aspect of living in a community. If the
other members of the community have a strong mindset about what's
appropriate and you're outside that mindset, there will be an issue. You
have to live with these people. If they, as a group, feel strongly
enough that you're acting inappropriately they'll get their way, deed
restrictions or not.

This brings up another thought. I wonder how many times a person who has
trouble with the neighbors might have trouble with them in other areas.
Some times an antenna fight might just be a proxy for personality clashes.

Also a bit of friendly explanation can go a long way. When I put up my
first dipole, the neighbors across the street came out to ask what I was
doing. Natural enough when they saw the crazy guy on the roof with a
slingshot and fishing line. I explained exactly what it was, and told
them about it's uses, especially about emergency communications. I gave
a few examples, such as the lower Ontario disaster that happened a few
years before.

I even noted that in really bad disasters, I could patch them through
to their relatives to let them know they were okay - if the local phones
went out.

It can be a lot easier sell when they can see that it might be a
benefit to them. Our locale was the site of a couple major wintertime
disasters in the last 10 or so years. Big winter storms that came early
and brought trees down that still had leaves on them, knocking out power
and phone for several days, as long as a week in some areas. The
collective response was, "I'll be, that's pretty cool".

A tray of cookies or brownies once in a while or the occasional beer
doesn't hurt either! Hard to get too mad at people you break bread with.


Contrast that to demanding your right to put up whatever you darn well
please, and if the neighbors don't like it, they can can it. We all know
which one works better.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -