Voom, OTA & my Homeowners Assoc

[StormyQ]

Howdy folks.

First post but I've been reading the board for two days now. Lots of great information and helpful contributors.

I am a long time cable subscriber and VOOM hopeful. Wanted to run the following HOA covenant by some extra eyes to see if it raises any flags with respect to the size & placement of the OTA antenna I would need. Thanks in advance!

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Section 8.17 Antennas. No exterior antennas, aerials, satellite dishes or other apparatus for the transmission of television, radio, satellite or other signals of any kind shall be placed, allowed or maintained upon any portion of the Properties, except that (i) antennas or satellite dishes designed to receive video programming services via multi-point distribution services which are one meter or less in diameter or diagonal measurement; (ii) antennas or satellite dishes designed to receive direct broadcast satellite service which are one meter or less in diameter; or (iii) antennas or satellite dishes designed to receive television broadcast signals [(i), (ii) and (iii) are collectively referred to as "Permitted Devices"] shall be permitted, provided that any such Permitted Device is placed in the least conspicuous location on the Lot at which an acceptable quality signal can be received and is not visible from neighboring property or is screened from the view of adjacent Lots in a manner consistent with the Community-Wide Standard and the Design Guidelines.

* yellow - uhf KXAS-DT 5.1 NBC Fort Worth TX 216° 35.7 41
* green - uhf KTVT-DT 11.1 CBS Fort Worth TX 214° 35.5 19
* green - uhf KERA-DT 13.1 PBS Dallas TX 214° 35.5 14
* green - uhf KDAF-DT 33.1 WB Dallas TX 212° 37.7 32
* green - uhf KDFW-DT 4.1 FOX Dallas TX 216° 36.1 35
* red - uhf KTXA-DT 21.1 UPN Fort Worth TX 212° 37.7 18
* red - vhf WFAA-DT 8.1 ABC Dallas TX 216° 36.1 9

 

[squicken]

You should be fine, the only sticky point looks to be "not visible from neighboring property". If your Home Owner's Assoc. are Nazis or your neighbors are jerks, this clause could give you trouble. Drive around your neighborhood, and see what others' are doing. It would be difficult for your HOA to object if your doing the same thing that other people are doing. *I am not a lawyer*

 

[The Stone Man]

I've seen quotations from several sources about laws that allow you to put an antenna on your roof that supercede anything an HOA can try to enforce. Cyuhnke is right. If you do what others have already done--you should be fine. Hopefully, you won't have to justify an installation to anybody, but if you look through the threads here by using the search function, you'll see that this is one area where an HOA can't say much. Good luck.

 

[jened]

good luck. you can be right 100% but you have to still pay the hoa money to fight you in court regardless of outcome!

 

[rickaren]

I'm a Chairman of a new Home Owners Association Architectural Review Committee (have VOOM, DirecTV & OTA antennas on my home (3) and working on rules for antennas. Go to Fact Sheet http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html and print it out for them. They can't keep you from installing them! Just try and keep the install from the front and locate it in the rear if possible. Also make sure the installer doesn't try to do it the fastest and simplest way if there is an issue. Some still think the Dish has to be located high up. It can be mounted on the ground if you have line-of-site. Had a DISH install back in the early nineties and the Dish was mounted on the side of the home about two feet from the ground. Every time I lost the signal I was afraid someone stole it! Really why would anyone have wanted it. Great location to service (later replaced with DirecTV myself), and if snow got on it no problem. I do recommend that if you go this route don't have a fast growing Butterfly Bush near by. Had to keep trimming it all summer or I would loose the signal with just one branch getting in the way. Good Luck.

P.S. I read that the FCC may even change the rules that HOA can't even demand a 30 day review on SkyReport last week.

 

[digideal]

A fellow DFW person! Welcome to Voom. this area they can't keep you from having the dish, but it can't protrude outside of your dwelling area. So, if you have a balcony (like I do) then just make sure the dish is within the confnes of the balcony and doesn't peak over. I just went to Lowes and bought a 5 gallon paint bucket, an 80 pound bag of Quickcrete and a 4 foot metal fence poll to create a stand for it. Metro Tech is prolly your installer, they are GREAT and charge $75 for this contraption, or lowes charged $30 to do it yourself.

good luck, contact me if you need further assistance!

 

[ricks]

I own a townhouse in a community made up of two-story quad buildings. I've put in my request and it will be heard at our weekly meeting next Thursday. I don't anticipate any problem with the dish location which will be a very low mount near the A/C unit and surrounded, but not obscured, by bushes. I am less confident of the antenna placement and anticipate problems with that. I'm planning on a pole mount about 10' high immediately adjacent to my patio screening. That will extend the antenna higher than the sloped side of the screening but won't even exceed the height of the peak of the screening. There is no way to make it "not visible" to neighbors, although I don't think we have those specific rules. I'm going to use the Stealth that comes with Voom, and when that doesn't work, will have to decide what to do next. I anticipate a line of sight problem as the two-story quad unit next to me is right in the way of the main group of towers. The other tower for a main network station is exactly opposite those and behind me and my building. Sheesh.

I have read the Fed guidelines. My patio area is clearly my exclusive use property. As I read the guidelines, I could extend the antenna from my patio as high as I want as long as it doesn't extend more than twelve feet above the second story roofline. Now, I wouldn't do that, but that seems to me to be what it says. And they couldn't do a thing about it. This seems excessive but allowed. Correct?

I guess what I'm trying to do is to confirm the extreme, so that if a dispute develops, I can demonstrate to them just how fair and reasonable I am being with my current plans.

Any other advice or suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[StormyQ]

Thanks to you all for the input! Very helpful.