During a year and a half, I tried different ways to reposition the antenna. I would like to share these experiences with others.
Maybe the article is longer, but the story also took a long time...
Franta OK2VFS
I lived, like most ordinary people, in a panel house in a housing estate from the 1980s, and I had an 83 m delta loop stretched between the houses for about 15 years - without problems with the neighbors or the authorities. But then I moved again to a block of flats, with the difference that all of us, including me, have our own apartments.
I naively thought that personal ownership would mean something better.
After a short discussion, I carefully informed the house confidant of my hidden wish - to stretch 20 m of wire on the roof between two unused STA masts. His reaction clearly showed complete ignorance of the issue:
"That won't work, because Mr. P. used to have an antenna here, listening to Western radio, and you know how many problems there were with it - and it even started to leak."
(And surely not because the roof was still from 1964?)
I tried to gently and politely explain to him the purpose and progress of the construction in the spirit of the "recommendations" of the ČRK lawyer, but in vain.
I focused my next survey on the mature trees in the vicinity. Their location offered the possibility to build a beautiful delta loop.
I tried my luck at the city office - at the green maintenance department.
I prepared a drawing, a written request and bet on the friendliness of a young, sympathetic (and as it turned out, still unspoiled by time and power) official. All this promised success.
I waited a week, two, then I called him.
He still had a pleasant voice and apologized about five times, but he explained to me that he had a boss over him who decided categorically:
"Nothing like that!!"
He also unofficially revealed the reason: "We have never allowed anyone to do this. We need to continue to maintain the trees (which we cut last year), and if we allowed you to do this and accidentally damaged them, you could sue us."
For all possible reasons, they chose the most stupid one.
After a year, the house confidant changed and hope was sparked.
Indeed - a smart lady (nurse) understood that this is not a way to get rich or any other harm to society.
She only warned me about the need to ask the confidant of the other half of the house.
He agreed without a word - as it turned out later, he had no idea what he was agreeing to.
The truth is, a lawyer would say, "My Lord, you should have had it confirmed in writing..."
He would be right, but I thought I was dealing with normal people, not characters from American soap operas.
I was convinced of their "normality" three days after I stretched the 20 m of wire.
I didn't even have a power cable yet, and activists had already started collecting signatures against "radiation".
So I preferred to cut the wire myself.
Attempts to explain that I did not want to irradiate anyone were useless.
I argued that there are three GSM transmitters and probably some Internet transmitter within a radius of 200 m.
It might just spark another petition against them – HI.
In this situation, I did not want to give up on principle.
I decided to stretch the 20 m of wire to the opposite house.
I reached out to Mr J from the 4th floor - again a 'provident' choice as it turned out.
I knocked on the door, equipped with patience (I am a teacher at an electrical engineering school) and a ready-made drawing.
When he opened it for me, I already knew from his appearance that it would not be easy.
I explained my intention to him. He obviously had no idea what I wanted.
With the same patience with which I explain Kirchhoff's laws to students at graduation, I tried the impossible.
His conclusion was:
"I can't allow you to do that, I'm the section confidant here, and all the residents of the house would have to agree to it."
(However, I was told by the construction department at the city office that this is not necessary.)
When I tried to explain it to him again, he definitively "grounded" me with my antenna by saying:
"I won't let you because—when someone sees it, they'll want it too."
And with that everything was equipped.
You know that picture of a stork eating a frog and it strangles him in the process?
Pod obrázkom je nápis "NEVER GIVE UP".
I felt exactly like the frog - and that's why I tightened the rope around the stork's neck even more.
It turns out I should have started where I was most worried - with the neighbors directly above us.
After a month of renovation of the apartment with hammers and other noisy tools, I assumed that they would definitely not like me.
The opposite was true – they turned out to be normal people.
Without further ado, they signed me to agree to install a wire loop in front of their balconies.
And without any problems, this request was also approved by the construction department of the city office.
And so the twenty-meter loop, which can be fine-tuned to 40 m, has been hanging in place for a month.
For now, I broadcast carefully with a power of 20 W - at a time when there are no such series Rosalinda či Žena za pultom s Dallasom.
I firmly believe that it won't be until someone "competent" notices it and says that he doesn't know why, but he doesn't like it - and he goes to consult his uncle at the municipal office.
But even then I will not give up - I will use my technical knowledge.
We know that laws are laws, we won't do anything about it.
Ale myslím si, že ČRK should be more active in this direction - not just standing quietly in the background and crying, or recommending to stay in outdated positions, as in the past with CW.
Then maybe I too would return to ČRK again - with the feeling that there is strength in the unity of the association.
That if someone is wronged, we will not leave them alone, even if there are only about 4000 of us.
And we will not hide behind polls so that we do not have to take responsibility for our decisions.
(Staré príslovie hovorí: „Slovo robí muža.“ And I don't mean empty talk.)
I think that some of the lawyers who are sympathetic to us should finally find a way around these discriminatory measures.
After all, it's not a big deal.
(I know - lawyers, it's free...)
This article was not meant to sound like a whiny complaint, but rather like revolta proti obmedzenosti a podnet na zamyslenie.
Franta OK2VFS