Permits for catv and Satellite dishes

[romeo]

Does anyone know of any towns or cities that require permits for catv and satellite dish installations?

While doing electrical inspections I see catv and satellite installations that are not NEC compliant and of very poor workmanship.

To be able to better monitor this work I would like to begin to require permits. Just wondering if any other towns or cities are doing this?

Most of the work is being done by sub-contractors.

 

[infinity]

Around here no permit is pulled for this type of work. As you've stated most of the stuff I see is installed poorly and replete with NEC violations. Maybe it would be good if a permit were required. I'm sure that the HO's would be against the extra cost for the permit.

 

[haskindm]

The new wording of Article 90 in the NEC makes it very clear that "communications wiring" is covered by the NEC. Our jurisdiction has deermined that if it is covered by the NEC, then it must be inspected. If it must be inspected, the inspection must be requested by a Master Electrician, or a person with a restricted (low voltage) master's license.

 

[stickboy1375]

this will never happen....

 

[BarryO]

Just another wrinkle to this question: federal law (specifically, the 1996 Telecomm Act) may prohibit any requirements for prior permits or approval for DBS satellite dishes of 1 meter or less, and Over The Air TV antenna systems. Local rules that "unreasonably delay or prohibit installation" are prohibited. And Federal law trumps state and local law. See the FCC Over The Air Reception Device Rule (OTARD): http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Reading the case law on the FCC site is interesting. There have been a few attempts to use the NEC to prohibit an antenna installation; the ones I found were all attempts by landlords or condo management (it's now pretty tough to ground a dish on an apartment balcony, and not run the GEC outside space exclusively under control of the tenant, since you can't ground to just anywhere on the water piping system). The outcome seems to be that the local entity can require NEC compliance for an installation, they just can't make prior application/permit filing or prior approval a requirement.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

this will never happen....

I agree,direct tv for no install charge cant be hiring masters or paying for permits.But they do fall way short of nec