OT Mobile phone masts

I'm looking to buy a house with a mobile phone mast in the garden.
It's about 50m from the house. There's loads of information on the net
about the safety of these devices but most of it seems to be either
scaremongering or reports from the telecoms industry saying there's no
problem. There is a significant rental income from O2 and the contact
lasts another 20 years.

Would the FOAK buy the house?

 

<Viz Top Tips>

Why not just erect a mast in your own garden?

</VTT>

 

Are you going to get a good signal?

And have you considered the tax you'll pay on the rental?

Personally though, I wouldn't have a mast in my garden, but that's just me
as no-one is going to say that they definitely don't do any damage, just
like no-one can prove that they do.


--
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Not if I had young kids. Just like I wouldn't buy one that's beneath
power lines.

 

I live in the middle of nowhere - the only network we get is O2, and
even that is at 1-2 bars strength. This means my mobile runs itself down
in about 8 hours. When I try to make calls, I am holding a transmitter
up to my head which is trying to call out at full power to the cell
mast. This has far greater health implications than any radiation from
the cell mast itself.

I would enjoy the money and worry about something else.

 

Yep, the scaremongering is bollox[1], take the rental money. I'd have
one in my garden for that given the chance, plus of course it would
wind up the neighbours.

[1] Consider TV transmitters, their often extremely high power output
and locations.

 

Probably depending on how ugly, how much I wanted *that* house and what
the income was.

If I wanted to stay for 20 years, then almost certainly.

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Perhaps if I could blow the mast up in a Tyler Durden Style.

 

Whine ot.
Ignore the scaremongers, the mobile next to your ear puts more power
into your brain than a mast even a few yards away.
Just push the price down by claiming that the house is worth less
with that contraption in the garden, the seller and/or agent will
believe the crap and you get a bargain.

 

It *is* worth less. Most of the populace think that there's a risk. And
it's almost certainly ugly.

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Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

High probability, maybe. I doubt there was a massive risk.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

In communiqué

Not everyone is logical. It might be more of a problem when you come to
sell again.

We used to get a few complaints about them in my 'white hat' days. Some
folk claim that if you get close enough they can produce an audible
noise sensation (at least from the old analogue systems). One of our
EHOs did quite a lot of research on behalf of an old dear in a top
storey flat right under one. We could never hear anything and went
through the pantomime of using sophisticated (for the day) sound level
meters to show there was no airborne noise. Which there wouldn't be as
the alleged effect acts directly on the auditory system.
Mr Carley may know more of such theories.

At 50 metres, I wouldn't worry about it personally. Even the risk to
children at that distance is far less than that posed by using a phone
itself IMO.

There again, nobody knew what a bastard blue asbestos was years ago
because the symptoms took decades to appear.
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Did he have a hearing aid?

 

Ahhhh, sorry.

Hmm, wouldn't like to start trying to quantify that


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

and the radar systems around airports. Those must kill children by the
hundreds

--
'Hog
'06 ST4-S
'96 Bastard12 '89 R100RS '81 XS650 '78 RD400
'81 R65 Outfit
CO2-A load of hot air

 

Serious science conducted placebo tests with mobile phone transmitters
recently. The results were quite amusing. And nobody could actually
detect a damn thing and there were no measured symptoms.

But you knew that anyway. The real decisions are about the effect on
resale.

--
'Hog
'06 ST4-S
'96 Bastard12 '89 R100RS '81 XS650 '78 RD400
'81 R65 Outfit
CO2-A load of hot air

 

Radiation is covered by the inverse square law - as such, hoovering with the
cable over your arm or holding a phone to your head is going to expose you
to a hell of a lot more radiation than powerlines or a mast will. So I
wouldn't worry about that.

However, 50m is rather close for such a big ugly thing. Is the fan /
transformer noise audible from the house? What access rights do O2 have for
maintenance (normally there is an access at any time clause in the
contract)? You'd probably be unable to put locked gates on your driveway if
that's their access route. What are the winding up arrangements (5 years
notice & full rent), or is it simply a fixed term contract?

I've got a rough idea what the rent would be, and I'd probably go for it,
provided your satisfied with the access arrangements etc. It'll shorten your
mortgage considerably if you pay it straight in, or pay for your kids to go
to uni. And of course, there will be a not inconsiderable windfall in terms
of increased property value when and if they decide to get rid of the mast.
I seem to remember reading that 3G technology is advancing and a far lower
mast density will be required in the future, so that's a possibility.

 

No idea of Radar RF output, certainly analogue TV main transmitters
are often 500Kw and occasionally 1Mw per channel for the 4 main
channels usually less for C5.

 

I see we've done my fan story
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec.motorcycles/msg/7053bc165a7c8598?
which demonstrates the problems with mythical noise.

 

Higher density surely, the current ~2GHz will require a lot more
transmitters for the same coverage as 900MHz GSM.