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THE
LOCAL TOPICS
EVERY WEDNESDAY
EVENING at 7:00 PM est
FREQUENCY 28.333 mhz USB
WELCOME TO LOCAL TOPICS PAGE
OF THE MOSQUITO NET!
HERE YOU CAN FIND INFO ABOUT LOCAL HAPPENINGS INCLUDING UPDATES ON THE
BREVARD
AMATEUR ANTENNA EXEMPTION ISSUE.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL LICENSED AMATEURS
IN BREVARD, WE ARE NOW
EXEMPT!
Please
Click here: ANTENNA EXEMPTION HISTORY For the full story on how Brevard County
arrived at full exemption for amateur antennas from permits and fees. A great
Victory for ALL amateurs in Brevard County!
BROWSE THE LATEST TARC
NEWSLETTER HERE:
T.A.R.C. COMMITTEES
THE
TITUSVILLE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB IS IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO FORM COMMITTESS
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ITS STANDING IN THE COMMUNITY ALONG WITH HOPES FOR
INCREASED PARTICIPATION OF THE MEMBERSHIP IN CLUB ACTIVITIES. IF YOU ARE
INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN A COMMITTEE, HAVE SUGGESTIONS OR COMMENTS PLEASE
USE THIS FORM: TARC COMMITTEE SURVEY
T.A.R.C X-MAS PARTY – The T.A.R.C annual
Christmas party was a fun filled event for all that attended. A special thanks
to Pike and Clara Abell for the planning and execution of a wonderful party!
Clara did an exceptional job as MC for the night along with Pike who
entertained us all with his witt and humor! Thanks also to Sherry Hughes and
Pat Renninger for the beautiful decorations and help in setting up and making
the X-Mas Party happen. Other happenings at the Christmas Party included
swearing in of 2004 club officers, Bud Hughes K4CWG as President. Bob Keim
W4TAT as Vice President, Becky KF4HTB as Secretary/Treasurer. This years Board
of Directors includes: Pike Abell W4EPU, Hank Phillips AA4HP, John Renninger
KE4ZPA and Bob Farrington W4YBI.
Club President Bud Hughes K4CWG also presented the 2003
Ham of The Year award to me, Bob Keim W4TAT. I want to thank all the members of
TARC that nominated me for the award, it is truly appreciated and I look
forward to working hard for the club in the coming New Year as a newly elected
officer. Looking forward to a great year of growth and prosperity for the
Titusville Amateur Radio Club.
Titusville X-MAS Parade – Bob W4YBI planned
this years participation of TARC in the annual JC’s sponsored Titusville
Christmas Parade. Bob should be commended for his efforts and his first attempt
at setting up and participating in a communications assistance event. Please
take a moment to thank Bob W4YBI for his efforts when you bump into him. If you
have ideas for next years event, comments about this years event or suggestions
that may help to increase and further TARCS visibility and participation in
community assistance events please don’t hesitate to contact me and we will
post them here for further discussion. I would personally like to see a group
discussion after every event with discussion of strengths and weakness relating
to Community events participation and therefore growing TARC’s abilities to
assist served agencies and organizations. Using each TARC participation as a
learning tool to further our knowledge in communications assistance is the ONLY
way to keep TARC growing and respected by the various served agencies and
organizations.
FIELD DAY UPDATE - This years TARC field day was
a lot of fun! Being my first I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the weekend
was a blast! Thanks to Bud and Sherry Hughes and all the other members of TARC
that participated in the event and worked extra hard to make it a success. The
food was wonderful, The company was great and all that attended had a great
experience! A special thanks to John KE4ZPA, for an all out 24 hour effort at
making contacts and scoring points for the TARC effort. Checkout the photos
posted by Sherry Hughes (KU4ZO) at this site: SHERRY’S FIELD
DAY PICS
10-10 UPDATES - We have had many new members
of the Mosquito net earn the required 10 contacts to become 10-10 members and
to secure their own 10-10 numbers.
Congrats
to the following members for making the required contacts on the Mosquito
net:
Robert Keim - W4RNK 10-10# 73878,
Bo – KG4KBQ 10-10# 73886,
Wes Burzee – KI4BFA 10-10# 73971,
Tom Fuller – KG4WTX 10-10# 73982
A
special congrats to Lou from MO – KA0RHM and his club station KC0PYB for almost
reaching the goal on the previous few nets. Lou will be checking in and looking
for a few last contacts to make the required 10. If you have recently earned
the required contacts or a new 10-10 number please email me so we can post it
here!
ANTENNA EXEMPTION UPDATE:
8/7/03: A Hearing took place last night at
5:30 pm in the county commission chambers in building C. A large turnout of
licensed amateurs and the flavored speeches of a handfull that spoke were
responsible for sewing up the antenna exemption request.
The county had originally agreed to exempt
administratively all amateurs and chose to include receive only antennas. The
dangers of this becoming law became apparent quickly as a change in staff could
reverse the whole decision. With that in mind amateurs strategically challenged
the commission to eliminate the possibility for administrative decisions in the
process and to remove the loop hole of receive only antennas and both requests
were answered favorably.
Brevard county now exempts ALL
federally licensed amateur antennas and antenna supports from ALL fees and
permit processes. The only concession: amateurs agreed to adhere to accessory
building setbacks when erecting antennas or antenna supports. This setback
requirement would not include guywires.
From here on out it is imperative that
all antenna and support installations remain of the highest engineering
soundness and must include common sense placement so as to be “good neighbors”.
For the entire amateur community to keep this ordinance, we will be dependant
upon the actions of each and every amateur to respect the issue and not create
a problem with the ordinance.
Thanks to ALL those that supported the
issue from day one. I noticed the same faces time and time again at almost
every hearing, It was that core group of supporters that deserve the credit for
this touchdown in amateur radio history. There were those that felt Brevard
would never exempt amateurs and I am truly honored to be part of a group that
proved that statement wrong. Thanks again to all those who believed in this
fight and supported the issue till the end.
Bob W4TAT
7/26/03: The commission voted once again to approve an exemption
for amateurs but chose to include additional language that may impose more than
the minimum setbacks that were agreed to by the amateurs. That language may be
interpeted by the building department to impose a building permit process on
anyone that would want to put up an antenna or antenna support. Those
interpetations may include engineering drawings, sight plans or other county
imposed requirements which would vary with the specific installation. THIS
WOULD BE A REALLY BAD WAY OF ALLOWING THEM TO REGULATE US! The interpetation
could change with a change in staff and we may wind up in a bad position. The
good news is we approached the board to clarify the issues and on the record
the chair stated they didn’t intend us to be put thru the building permit
process! This is great news and shows the majority of the commissioners are for
the issue and trying to work out a reasonable solution. The bad news is we may
have to fight the inclusion of this new language at the next hearing based on
the outcome of the interpetations this week! We are having meetings with the
county staff this coming week to see what can be worked out in relation to the
new language that was added by Commissioner Higgs and will keep the results
open to all interested parties. Those results will be published here as well as
posted thru email to the list of people that have signed up. If you havent
signed up for email updates please do so by clicking here: Antenna
List email updates!
Keep alert and be prepared to round up all your amateur friends and
supporters of the exemption to make a large showing at the next hearing on
August 7th so we can request as a bulk group of voting citizens
the changes we need to make this amendment work for all!
Will keep you posted and thanks for everyones support!
7/6/03: As most of you are aware the LPA recommended approval of
an Exemption for Amateur antennas and supports from the county zoning code. And
chose to exclude CB, GMRS and Land Mobile Service. These extra services were
not in the original request and were not part of the direction to staff by the
Board of County Commissioners. Staff took it upon themselves to include these
services based on a recommendation by Brevard radio systems coordinator: Eric
Conklin. We as Amateurs fought
this inclusion at the LPA hearing and need to continue to keep those services
out of the exemption at the next two hearings based on the following points:
The Federal and State Statutes that require the County to accommodate
Amateur radio antennas, DO NOT protect or include any of the other
services.
Therefore
our legal standing in requesting this exemption may be jeopardized by including
the other services. Also if there are
complaints they will most likely come from the other unregulated services and
may reflect poorly on the Amateurs, eventually leading to a repeal of any
amendment we may gain thru all our hard work!
THE
NEXT HEARING IS tentatively scheduled for August 7th, in the county commission
chambers and I will keep all interested amateurs informed via email and phone.
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THE NEED FOR ALL AMATEURS TO ATTEND! NUMBERS IS THE WAY
TO WIN THIS EXEMPTION! If you haven't yet signed up for the email updates list
please go to the email signup page and signup NOW! After signup you will receive all
email updates pertaining to this issue.
PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND THE
NEXT HEARING AND SUPPORT THE EXEMPTION REQUEST!
W4TAT EMAIL
TO:
BOB KEIM w4tat@earthlink.net
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