Amateur radio and permissions for antennas.

For many years, I've been trying to represent amateur radio in Wales in relation to planning permissions for antennas and towers.

This is not an easy or short-term task!  It is not made easier by the admission from the RSGB a couple of years ago that they have abandoned any attempts to change the planning system to help radio enthusiasts.

This was a very big surprise to me, because the ability to put up an antenna at one's home is fundamental to pretty much everyone who wants to be a full operator or SWL.  The RSGB, it seemed to me, were ignoring the foundation whilst building a house on sand.

To add insult to injury, when I pointed out many changes within the Welsh planning system, the RSGB responded in a very irritating and silly way.  It couldn't tell me how many times it had contributed to consultations by the Welsh Government on planning.  But it did get annoyed with my questions and called Cardiff to see whether the rules were really any different to those of England.

This call was merely an attempt to say 'look, lad, there are no real differences, and you should shut up!'

Even if the rules are similar (and they are, every day, increasingly different) to those of England, the fact remains that the RSGB has not made any meaningful - indeed any - input into the various changes underway in Wales.

One change that has been developing in favour of the commercial telecomms operators in Wales is an allowance for them to both increase the height and width of their masts without consent.  This now extends even into protected landscape areas.  Already, commercial telecomms operators can install masts without consent in many cases.

Big TV antennas were ubiquitous in earlier times - as this 1954 image shows. (C) Paul Townsend.

But this generous flexibility that helps the commercial telecomms operators does not extend to the amateur operator.  No, we poor folk are only permitted two antennas no larger than that required for TV reception.

Of course, up until the late mid 1980s, a TV antenna in the UK was actually much larger than today's UHF versions.  They were often phased dipoles or simple beams, with a lower reception frequency of 45MHz - a bit bigger than a 6m beam.

The modern maximum antenna size that doesn't require planning consent.  Tiny, compared to previous times.

So, it was once the case that big TV antennas were permitted development, either by law or by non-enforcement.  Since the mid-1980s, the law changed - seemingly without any input from the RSGB, that dramatically reduced the permitted size of an antenna on a domestic building.

This is not representing the radio community!

I've read another 60 pages of planning change proposals from the Welsh Government this morning.  I am not sure how many pages the RSGB has read, nor how many representations, if any, it has made.  Well, I made my own response, anyway.  I also invited EURAO to consider involving itself with campaigning for better conditions for the amateur operator, which I think would instantly make EURAO both very relevant and very popular!