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I I I Town of New Brighton Zoning Commission April 16, 1981 Page Three The Radio Act of 1927 increased the feder<J1 government's authOI^ity to I-eg'. ulate this Cll"ea, and with the passage of the CornmunicaJions Act of 1934, the tn~ncl towards compn~hensive feuu'"lI I-egulation of interstate and foreign com- munication by wire and radio was substantially completed" The Communications Act of 19311 provided for the establishment of the Fedenll Cornmunication:, Commission to execute (lfld enfon:e the provisions of the Act. The (Joals sou~Jht to be ,lttained by <lcJoption of the Act are clearly staled in Sect iun 1: Fo,. the pUi'pose of n~qurdting interstelte and fOl-eign commerce in communication by wir-c and radio so ClS to make available, so far as possible, to atl people of the lJnited States iJ rapid, efficient, nation-" wide, cHId wor!d-wide wire and radio communication set"vice . . . and for Uw purpose of securin9 ZI rnor-e effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority hereto ~jranted by laY'1 to sever"al agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and for-ei~Jn commel^ce in wire and r;Jdio communication. . . 47 U.S.C. ~151. Additionally, Section 30 I of the Act claims complete jurisdiction over radio ener-gy fOI- the fedenll 90venllllcnt. Section 302 states: It is the purpose of this Act, among other things, to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of interstate and fOI^eign I-adio tr-ansmission; and to provide for the use of such channels. . . under licenses granted by Federal authority. . . No person shall use Ot- operate any apparatus for the transmission of energy or communications or signals by radio, . . except under and in acco/-dance with this Act and with a license in that behalf gl^cmted under pr"ovisions of this Act. 47 U.S.C. s301. Furthermore, Congl"ess granted the Commission the authority to establish a per- vasive system of regulation in the various radio services. Section 303 of the Act ~Jives such numerous powel^s to the Commission as to leave no doubt as to the ex- tent of this ,-egulatory scheme. These and other sections of the Communications Act indicate the cleat' intention of Congt'css that radio be ,-egu!atecl by the fed- eral 9overnment" Tile FCC rC<::Julates antenna height in its Rules (Ll7 C. F. R. Section 97.1+5) as docs the FAA, and thus it is not possible for an amateur to erect any size antenna he or she desires. It is not incumbent upon this board to detel'mine characte,-istics pet-twining to antenna height other than to determine the safety of the proposed installation. Nor do the Federal laws authorize such an extension of the scope of that inquil'y beyond safety factors. It is fully possible to determine prior to installation the safety aspects of an amateur antenna. An electrical or structural engineer has all requisite ability to dete/-mine whether or not an antenna installation is safe. The height of an antenna is not related to the safety of the installation. The relevant factors are the type of anter)Il<1, its placement in the yard, its guyin9 char'acteristics, house bracketing, and the like. All of these factors "H-e fully within the purview of an engineer to analyze.