HEIGHT REQUIREMENTS FOR HF ANTENNAS

Let me introduce myself: I am a professional engineer, living in Belgium,
and have been a HAM (ON4UN, also holding a US extra class license, AA4OI)
for approx. 35 years, and am very "involved" in antenna designing, modeling
etc. I have been using modeling programs for the past 7 or 8 years, and I am
a current user of verious Mininec and Nec-based programs. I am also the
author of a couple of antenna books, published by the ARRL (American Radio
Relay League), specializing on antennas for the low bands 1.8 to 7 MHz).

I am adressing myself to this reflector, because I know there must be
readers of this reflector who can help me.

In this country (Belgium) it becomes increasingly difficult for radio
amateurs to obtain a permission to put up antenna towers. The "RIGHT TO AN
ANTENNA" has been recognised as the number one issue for the survival of
amateur radio in this country, and I am sure it will be soon the same in
many other countries.

Today I have been approached by a lawyer, who has been defending a Belgian
Ham in sereval courts on such a matter of "RIGHT TO AN ANTENNA".

Indeed, a particular Belgian ham has been fighting the right to put up a
tower for HF and VHF antennas in SEVERAL Belgian courts. The issue has now
been dealth with at the HIGHEST courts of the country and the outcome, so
far, has not been 100 % satisfactory. Therefore this case is now going to be
moved to the EUROPEAN COURT IN STRASBOURG. The UBA (Belgian IARU society)
will be sponsoring this lawsuit, and is putting the right lawyers on the
case. What we aim for is to have the European court in Strassbourg condemn
the Belgian state, so that we can look for a bright future for amateur radio
in this country. Of course, this case will have its importance on a European
level, as it will be dealth with in a European court!

One of the lawyers called me today, and asked me if I could give him
reference articles, prefarably from UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS, explaing how high
towers must be for supporting HF band antennas. We are talking primarily
about Yagi-Uda antennas for the amateur bands: 28 MHz, 24 MHz, 21 MHz, 18
MHz, 14 MHz, 10 MHz, 7 MHz and 3.5 Mhz, as well as vertical antennas and
arrays made of vertical antennas for 1.8 Mhz (160 m).

The amateur radio community very well knows what the requirements are for
performing antennas on these frequencies: 24 m (80ft) is a strict minimum
for an antenna tower, and according to the bands we need a tower ranging
from 18 m (60 ft) for the 10m band, to 40 m (135 ft) for the 80m band, and
that in ideal cases various Yagis antennas should be on separate towers.
Quarter-wave vertical for 160 measure 135 ft (40 m).

I know there must be some of you that have information that can be helpful.
Again, what I need is identification of PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE that we can
use to support our case.

The matter is rather urgent I have been told. I would appreciate hearing
from anyone who has ideas, in the next few days.

Thank you for your co-operation!

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS 1996 TO ALL!

John Devoldere (ON4UN, OT5T, AA4OI)

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john.devoldere_at_box.eunet.be
Call us in all major 1995 contests: OT5T or ON4UN
John Devoldere (ON4UN-AA4OI)
POBOX 41
B-9000 Ghent (Belgium)
Received on Sun Dec 10 1995 - 20:09:00 EST