Alex, Over the years, I've found the magic combination to be:
(1) An inside contact (2) A company which has something to gain from the association (3) Demonstration of your competence and track record If you're dealing with county government, one possible way might be through ARES or other structured emergency prep activities. Are you in an area where you can demonstrate the need for a good set of ham repeaters to serve the public interest, or is ARES already waist-deep in repeaters? If you can find a ham on the inside at a company or government agency, it helps a bunch. I've actually had better luck with tall commercial buildings than with towers. I've had repeaters sited on a hotel near Buffalo NY and an office building in Orlando FL, and neither even charged me rent. It's just a matter of finding something in the relationship which meets some need for the landlord. It could be demonstrating the value of the site to commercial land-mobile or mobile phone interests, being able to point to the public service benefits to the community, or, as the hotel food and beverage manager said, "tell you what, you guys come have a meeting and drink in the bar once in a while, and we'll call it even." (Being at the right place at the right time is obviously 90 per cent of a deal like this.) I would get the repeaters coordinated and on the air, even if it's from a less-than-exciting location, so you can know all the bugs are worked out. If you do get someone to say "yes", you need to be able to install the repeaters immediately. These deals can cool off quickly if you're not ready to move. 73, Paul, AE4KR ----- Original Message ----- From: Alexander N Tubonjic To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 1:22 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Getting On A Commercial Tower Site A group of us local hams have just started an Amateur Radio Club and are looking to place a couple repeaters on the air. We already have one VHF and one UHF repeater sitting in a garage waiting to be put on the air. We've been looking at local commercial tower sites as possible locations for the machines but before we contact the owners of the towers I was wanting to get some feedback from those of you that currently have or have had equipment located on commercial towers. We're looking at towers owned by power companies, county utilities, FM Broadcast stations, etc. I was just wondering from everyone's experience what's the best way to approach the tower owner about putting gear on his or her tower? What kinds of obstacles have yall had to hop through to get your equipment up? Any dos and don'ts you could suggest? Any words of wisdom from anybody? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks es 73. Alex
