A far-reaching bill introduced Feb. 7 in the Texas state House of Representatives received a major makeover after the amateur radio community and wireless industry lawyers inadvertently joined forces to strongly oppose the legislation during last week’s public hearing in Austin, Texas.
The bill has been rewritten to exempt all amateur and non-commercial antennas, and now instead of obtaining a permit from the county to construct a new tower, commercial tower operators must only notify those around the site about the tower, and provide contact information. This only applies, however, to rural, unincorporated areas. All city restrictions will remain as is.
If passed, H.B. No. 1148 would give individual counties in Texas the authority to regulate tower siting on all “wireless communication facilities,” including antenna support structures for mobile and land-based facilities, whip antennas, panel antennas, microwave dishes, cell enhancers, mobile radio system facilities, monopole and steel lattice towers and any type of communication equipment shelter.
Amateur radio operators aggressively voiced their concerns over the bill from the beginning, pointing out the bill would make erecting even the smallest of antennas difficult. Jim Haynie, president of the Amateur Radio Relay League, drafted and submitted a bill that would exempt amateur radio operators, and it seems his efforts, as well as those of hundreds of individual radio operators, made an impact.
The bill has been tabled for later.
