Good evening to the list,

In the late 1980's I asked the town building inspector for the proper
paperwork for putting up a 50 to 75 ft. tower.  I showed him the plans and
there was no problem.  This area is very rural and there were only three
houses on the road when we first moved in.  I was OK with the building
permit because it would not fall on anybody else's proprty and so here's the
rest of the story.

I purchased a 75 ft. crank up tower and brought the whole thing home with
two trips to get every part on to the back of my pickup.
I dug the hole and prepared the base for pouring cement.  The three weeks of
letting the cement cure was a trying time because it was ready to go up and
I was anxious!

The day finally arrived when we could man-handle the heavy base on to the
bolts or threaded rods coming up through the cement and plumbed up the whole
thing.  We then used the winch and cable to lift the collapsed tower on to
it's mount.  We got it most of the way into position, but the rest was a bit
too much for only two people with one of us not seeing to line up the pivot
point!  We tied it off so no wind or movement would knock it over and quit
for the day.

I had not finished wiping the sweat off my brow when the first TVI call came
in!  These were our nice neighbors and after I had working antennas on the
tower I invited them or all three of them over to watch TV here while I
operated.  I was told that I must do some sort of a trick to cause
interference only on their TV's.  The man of the house came and saw TV on my
screen and heard me talking to another station.  He understood and I
mentioned that there was a way to eliminate houses and that was to turn off
the main breaker to each house while the others watched to see if the TV
cleared up.  He agreed to do that.  The next time they had interference he
called and I said OK and asked my wife to flip the main breaker.  All the
battery backups on the alarms started going off and it was a headache.  He
said that they still had it and I asked him to turn off his power and have
the other neighbor watch.  His wife said No because they were not the cause
of the interference.  I called the FCC and asked what I could do and they
mailed me a pamphlet on this topic which basically said the problem was that
of the TV owner and very unlikely that it was the Ham operator.

I couldn't wait to deliver this package.

We could expect a call about twice per week with me causing TVI, even when I
was in Florida and the shack was unplugged!  I was also the cause of their
TV receiving two stations on the same channel when most people were outdoors
observing The Northern Lights!  I probably also caused the Aurora Borealis!

The best one yet is when the lady of the house and primary instigator had to
come over and complain during a torrential downpour just to find us at home
doing something not involving the radio.  She was soaking wet and refused to
come into the house to check out my equipment.  They finally moved and
things have been quiet ever since.

The new neighbors were quite upset with the TV reception so they replaced
all the old spliced twin lead and put up a new antenna and they are quite
happy and now satellite has come to Royalston, no cable yet and we're
thankful we have electricity!

Have a great day,

Paul Bolduc

Amateur Radio Operator: WR1X
Email: [log in to unmask]

Located in the only town named Royalston in North America and maybe even the
world!
Royalston is located in Massachusetts, the home of the
World Champion New England Patriots!