Telephone pole as antenna support

[Ian - G4JQT]

Not exactly a vintage question, but someone here will likely know the answer...

I have a telephone pole on my property supporting one line that only goes to my home.

How do I stand legally if I hook an antenna to the pole's highest ladder rung? Nothing permanent, just an S-hook with some thin insulating rope to the wire antenna. I'm putting aside the possibility of interference to/from my phone line, but any transmitting will only be a couple of watts of CW.

Despite the pole being on my land, I suspect it's still the property of BT (or Open Reach?) and doing anything to it (apart from pinning posters for lost cats!) is likely to be prohibited.

Nevertheless, in the real world, if it's noticed am I likely to be fined thousands and/or locked away for decades? Or is some BT/Open Reach engineer just require that I remove it, or is it likely to be acceptable?

Thanks,

Ian

[ms660]

If anything untoward happens you'll be on dodgy ground (BT engineer slips/injury/strangles etc) It's their pole in its entirety......I think?

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

To be brief, I strongly advise that you don't use it for what you have in mind - although making an enquiry first would seem like a good idea. By proceeding without written consent, you could open yourself up to all sorts of legal problems. The 'bottom line' is its ownership.

Al.

[hansomcommon]

I have used the combined electricity & telephone pole which is on my property for over 20 years without any problems from either the electricity board or Outreach despite their visits to inoculate the pole and or attend to the wireing. They simply don`t care! The antenna is not in their way & is insulated.

[nutteronthebus]

Hi If a pole is on your land and feeds other houses then you can get rent from BT/ Elec for it

Dave

You could take the route of suggesting that you could erect a tower right next to the pole giving the same EMC problems (if it is that they moan about) so why not use/share theirs. A much neater solution.

[paulsherwin]

If you ask Openreach they will say no. The best approach is to hook something up which is both safe and easy to remove. If a visiting wireman decides to object you can just take it down until he's gone.

Obviously you shouldn't interfere with any telephone wiring, physically or electrically.

[ms660]

Referring to post#1, If the highest climbing rung is up near the top how is the hook going to be attached to it, I wouldn't climb up there if I were you, using a long pole or stick might be dodgy, so would firing an arrow

BT wouldn't approve, if they did it would set a precedent.

Lawrence.

As Paul suggested put it up anyway, a weak link of thin fishing line for the last point would enable you to merrily pull the aerial off the pole leaving no trace.

[Dave Moll]

Originally Posted by nutteronthebus

Hi If a pole is on your land and feeds other houses then you can get rent from BT/ Elec for it

Dave

The OP says that it only supports the one line going to his house, so presumably a wayleave wouldn't apply. Mind you, even if it did, he wouldn't become a rich landlord that way. I used to host a pole supporting electricity cables before our power went underground, and I seem to recall getting about a fiver a year (maybe it would be about £10 by now). When they buried the cable under my land, they offered me a couple of quid per year or a one-off payment - I decided to accept the latter as it didn't seem worth the effort of banking such a small cheque each year.

[Ian - G4JQT]

Originally Posted by pwdrive

Referring to post#1, If the highest climbing rung is up near the top how is the hook going to be attached to it, I wouldn't climb up there if I were you, using a long pole or stick might be dodgy, so would firing an arrow

The highest rung is about five feet from the top, so the chap can stand on it while working on the wire.

It's probably about 25 feet up, and I guess an S-hook on a couple of joined bamboo poles might do the trick. I dare say it could be made so a good pull on the antenna would break the string, or a knock with the bamboo pole could dislodge it.

Anyway, a lot of interesting ideas. I take to point of potential danger to a linesman, but he would see it before he got to it - I hope.

[G4YVM David]

The person you ask permission from will be an office dweller who's default is "no". The man who climbs the pile will be a real bloke...worst case hell just chuck it off.

D

[paulsherwin]

One thing to bear in mind is locating a transmitter aerial relatively close to an overhead telephone cable may well mess up your broadband.

[ex 2 Base]

Amongst my Amateur Radio document I have an official letter from the GPO stating that I have their permission to attach an antenna wire to the pole which is adjacent to our house. Several years ago, now in BT days, a BT operative knocked on the door saying I was to remove the wire immediately. I showed him my official document, by now he had calmed down, he walked away muttering. The insulator and wire are in still in place. Several men have since climbed the pole and no one has complained since the first encounter. Ted

[radiotechnician]

My reply has to prefaced by:

It applies to British Columbia , Canada
I am a licensed electrician.

First question:

Are you the owner of the property the pole is on ?

When the pole was placed, did you as owner, sign over
the rights to access and repair the phone line?

Here any wiring to phone pole is governed by Federal regulation,
as the phone company is a utility.


As an electrician, who has worked with a line crew,

my opinion is that it is a bad idea. Crews here often

work in the worst weather. They don't want to get hurt

with non standard wiring.

[paulsherwin]

Realistically, there is no increased risk to the lineman from this proposal. The OP is concerned that a lineman will notice this and report it to his manager, who will then get the BT/Openreach legal people involved and he will suffer some sort of legal sanction.

My suspicion is the lineman will just ignore it if it doesn't get in his way. He may tell the OP to take it down, or take it down himself. If he's a real jobsworth and initiates formal action then that is likely to be a stiff letter from BT.

Of course, if the pole and/or wiring are modified in a dangerous manner then action is likely to be taken, and quite right too.

[lesmw0sec]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

One thing to bear in mind is locating a transmitter aerial relatively close to an overhead telephone cable may well mess up your broadband.

Too true! My 80M dipole is well away from the phone lines, but the lines are overhead and miles from the exchange. If I run full power on 80M it can cause ADSL dropouts which in itself is not a problem, but it can cause the junk at the exchange to decide that the line is noisy and reduce the data speed for a day or so until re-training brings it back!

Les.

[Aub]

Hi Les,

In case you haven't seen this:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=89160

73

Aub

[lesmw0sec]

No I hadn't. It is not really a problem for me in any case, rarely get on 80 these days. It is further alleged, that next year we might be getting some variation of fibre - even though being miles out in the sticks!

Les.

[G6Tanuki]

My philosophy is that "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission".

As such, I've got a vertical Band-II FM dipole attached about 20 feet up the Scottish&Southern utility-pole here, and a screw-in eye at around 25 feet holds the end of my 100mumble-foot-long end-fed wire which I use for low-HF-band amateur radio [30 watts of SSB to it gets me to Iceland on 5MHz].

Twenty feet further up are the insulators and conductors for the house 240/415VAC power. The SSE guys have never made a fuss when they've been round to do an inspection.