[TowerTalk] FCC Tower Registration

["Rob Atkinson, K5UJ" <k5uj@hotmail.com>]

Warning:  **This is not an expert reply**

A few years ago a ham wrote an article in QST about how he got a cell phone 
company to locate a cell site on his property (actually they approached him 
like the radio station has done with you) and they put up a tower (maybe a 
monopole big fat mast) and put his beam up on top so he got a nice solid 
commercial free tower + rent money out of the deal.  he gave a good list of 
pros and cons.


from what I can recall, pros:

Rent money coming in every month or quarter or year depending on contract.  
Don't know how much to expect though.  I would have the contract they will 
probably produce looked over by a communications atty.  You will want that 
done anyway for other reasons besides getting an idea of what a reasonable 
rent payment would be.

They may beef up your tower (better guying) to handle the additional wind 
loading and do a professional grounding job.

They should pay for the electric bill.  They will probably have a separate 
service circuit run to the transmitter and have the power co. bill them 
directly.  They may build an equipment vault at the base of the tower on a 
slab.

Cons:

Depending on ur QTH there may be some iffy zoning since this is 
"commercial."

You will have a transmitter on all the time.  depending on the ERP this may 
or may not be a problem.  your own consumer stuff may get rfi.

I'd make sure the contract says they have to fix all your ham station rfi 
(because it is licensed), if there is any, whether they are causing it or 
you or you are causing it to them.  It should also say you cannot be 
expected to perform any emergency maint. on their gear.  in other words, if 
they go off the air at 2 am in a blizzard they have to send their guys out.  
It's their baby.

You will no longer be able to easily dismantle, move, or do stuff to the 
tower with their antenna, i.e. you have a bit of a committment.  The 
contract will probably say something to that effect.

Selling your property if you ever want to move will be more complicated if 
they are still a tenant.

If you think you are going to stay at ur QTH for a long time and the tower 
they want to use is pretty permanent, it might be something worth pursuing 
to the extent of at least finding out what their deal is and thinking about 
it & running it by a lawyer & how much you need the money and how much it 
is.

There are obvious variables e.g. if you are HF op & they want to run 100 w. 
FM on 95 MHz then prob. okay.  OTOH, if u a weak sig. EME guy & they want to 
run 10 kw, run!  (first ask if they have any extra heliax you can have)   :  
 )

my 2c.
Rob/K5UJ

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