I am reproducing a facebook post made today on request for information about Armando's current situation. Armando is good after moving house and "shoehorning" his equipment into a rather nice, but compact bungalow in a terrace of four, with communal front and its own small back yard. He has built a shed to house his radio shack. There isn't enough room in the bungalow. It has taken 8 months to build but is good quality job despite his age and physical condition. He is currently occupying the shed and should be in by tomorrow. He plans to do a goodly amount of operating from it. The 8 months has not been without incident. The first occurred 3 days after picking up the keys. He submitted a detailed application to housing to put a pulley at the top and bottom of the existing TV mast. On the third day of occupation he was told to remove the TV mast(!), (which had been there since John Logie Baird first thought up TV. (I googled it)). The housing people apologised. As they didn't like that idea, he ordered up a wire antenna about 50' long and asked if he could put up an 8m telescopic portable mast, clamped to the washing line post to support it. (This is positioned about four meters from the said TV Mast. Permission was granted. (It didn't escape us how ridiculous that decision was, not able to use the TV mast but can put another pole up, but everyone appeared satisfied with it and Armando agreed to comply with a third set of rules. The wire antenna he bought was 100' (they come in two sizes.) but he went with it anyway and hung it inverted vee style from the top of his new mast, in the centre of the property, stretched over the roof of the property - with the ends just fitting above the perimeter fence in places on three short poles. Bearing in mind he is located next to a telegraph pole, with more than ten wires radiating outwards from it, this wire blends in quite well. It was up for four weeks before the second incident when two seperate council officials told him "thats got to come down". After registering his dismay another high level meeting followed. It's still up. In the mean time his application for planning is due a response this week. He is busy also establishing good neighbour relations. (We were the only two customers drinking coffee in his packed local DIY store the other day. Some local pals share an interest in his activity and he gets on OK with everyone else. While we are optimistic about planning it's not without problems and Armando is nervous about the outcome, but he is taking it as it comes. There is a distrust due to the reason for the move being to a place where he could operate his radios with the necessary permission. Which is the desired outcome. We will all breath easier when that's resolved. No disrespect the council guys have been really understanding and helpful and we hope to have reached that level of understanding required for Armando to get on with his life.. Best wishes, Stuart Dixon