Hi Towertalkians:
I am getting concerned about "progress being made" at N6IJ. We
got the N6IJ site from the Government, and it is now managed by our
Subcommittee (of amateurs,) working under and with the City of Marina.
Very quickly after it transferred from government ownership to City
Management for Recreational Purposes, under a lease by the Natioal Park
Service' "Federal Lands to Parks"
program, It is being seen not only as a recreation resource, (N6IJ
Contest Station, shared with an Equestrian Center, whose trails snake
amongst the antenna farm poles) , but as a revenue generator through the
development of the hilltop site wrt commercial radio uses. The old
antenna farm, mostly 70 foot poles scattered around the 10 acre site,
provice great utility for amateur radio antennas. Some newly planned
water tanks complicate the development picture somewhat, being 100 ft
diameter, and 30 ft tall (two of them). We negotiated future rights to
place amateur towers amongst the water tanks, to continue our contest
station development. Now the talk is about exploiting the ideally located
hilltop, to generate revenue for the City. This is/may be a double edged
sword, as now the interpretation of the government lease is to reqire
revenue generated on the property to be used for recreational purposes.
Naturally our interpretation of this is to plow back revenues into antenna
development/contest station development on the site. The shared user
(Equestrian Center) might interpret this as meaning building more horse
show hardware/riding trails improvments. The director of parks and
recreation, may see this revenue as meeting the need for some of this
money for use in a more general way for all the various parks throughout
the city.
The site is ideally suited for installation of PCS or Cellular or
2 way radio equipment. The site is currently used for HF operating, and
contesting activities, (recreation), and for providing open space/trails
for horseback riding. I could see a future top notch, high power EME
station there also, using VHF, UHF bands.
MY WORRIES:
If the site is developed for commercial radio usage, the possibility
exists that our Amateur radio activities could interfere with some
commercial radio users of the site. Also, some commercial uses of the
site could interfere with amateur radio contesting uses of the site. If,
for example, the PCS user of the site, invests the required million
dollars (just a guess on my part) to install a PCS system on the site, and
we somehow knock him off the air with our high powered HF transmitters, or
our 200KW ERP Moonbounce system, the Call to the city manager by the PCS
company, (or the Cement truck company, or the Paging company, or the taxi
company, etc...) would bring the following predictable response:
"I got a call from the (PCS, PAGING, Cement) company, who helps the
Recreation department with radio site rental revenues in the order of
$3000/month, and they say you
guys are making their communications systems worthless." They want you to
stop using the hilltop site, or do whatever it takes to not interefere
with their radio sytems. What are you going to do about it?"
(My Worst Nightmare)
Solutions:
We are in the early stages of this evolution, so I am looking for
expertise that can help us draft a Memorandum of Understanding which has
boilerplate, and is legally binding, and which does three things:
1. Becomes a term and condition in the contracts between the city
and the Commercial Radio Site users, which defines the existing radio
environment created by the Amateur Radio Operations, and requires them to
accept the existing radio environment, and work around it for their uses
AT THEIR EXPENSE.
2. Require the commercial radio users to not interfere with
existing HF and EME recreational users of the site. They would have to
modify, or stop their uses in such a way as to cease interefering with the
amateur users, at their own expense.
3. Require the city to keep the amateur opeators "in the loop"
early on in the marketing stages, and selection of potential radio users,
to
limit those with the highest probability of creating interference, or
being interefered with the existing amateur radio activity at the site.
Any of you Tower Talkians out there know now to create such a MOU
document?
Any advice?
Thanks,
73, DX de Pat, AA6EG/N6IJ
"The Contest Station from the Government"
Marina Amateur Radio Contest Station; N6IJ
599 DX Drive
Marina CA 93933
aa6eg@tmx.com
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