[VHFcontesting] Cell Sites

[w3sz <w3sz@comcast.net>]

Hello, All,

I am asking for advice from the collective wisdom of the VHF and  
VHF-Contesting lists.

I have been approached by a cellular company wanting to put up a tower on  
my property and of course to lease that space.

My immediate response on reading the letter was, "Are you crazy?"  I had  
this response of course because of concerns about EMI in both directions,  
me to them and them to me.

I am however by virtue of the fact that my property is quite high, and  
probably sees every cell tower for more than 10 miles in all directions  
already exposed to multiple cell towers, at least a couple of which are  
fairly close [I would guess on the order of 0.5 to 1.0 mile away, but that  
is just a very rough guess].  I have a few bleeps and bloops on 903, but  
that is it in terms of problems as far as I know.  I am not aware of any  
desensing on the other bands {I operate 50 MHz thru 24 GHz weak signal  
terrestrial, and 144 MHz EME}.  I use cavity filters before the preamps on  
144 MHz EME, and helical filters on 50 thru 903 MHz before the preamps.

The amount they offer as a starting point for negotiation is not large,  
but it would cover my property taxes and in addition leave me with more  
money to spend annually on ham radio than I would ordinarily allow myself  
to spend.  So I am starting to consider this, thinking that maybe  
suffering some additional bleeps and bloops on 903 would be a small price  
to pay for the financial benefits of such an arrangement.  My wife of  
course thinks this is a good deal, and has already figured out that if I  
do this it will be 'x' years before the rent we receive from the deal will  
pay off what I have already spent on ham radio-related expenses I have  
incurred at the property.  So there are domestic advantages to the deal.   
;)

Other thoughts that occur to me:

1.  No neighbor problems currently with my present towers.  This could  
potentially cause some I would think.  And if I don't do the deal, and  
make that known, it could be a positive if complaints ever surfaced.

2.  If the cellular signals are strong enough, I could suffer significant  
problems on other bands [besides 903] due to mixing products.

3.  I don't know how MUCH rent / other benefits it is reasonable to ask  
for.  I faintly recall a QST article where I believe the author got in  
addition to rent a new tower, antennas, maintanence, etc.  Does anyone  
have knowledge of the 'going lease rates', which I am sure vary a lot?  I  
am in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

4.  I would need to have some agreement that the cell company would need  
to accept any interference that occurred from me, with the worst result  
allowed being that they would terminate the agreement.  No other damages  
allowed.  And maybe they would have to leave the tower in place if they  
left.

Any thoughts from those who have been down this road, or considered it, or  
know someone who has, would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and

73,

ROger W3SZ



--
Roger Rehr
W3SZ
http://www.qsl.net/w3sz
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