1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) More than 770,000 amateur operators in the United States are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (in this section referred to as the Commission ) in the amateur radio services, and, by treaty, amateur operators licensed by other countries are authorized to operate within the United States. (2) Amateur radio, in addition to providing life-saving emergency communications at no cost to taxpayers, provides a fertile ground for technical self-training in modern telecommunications, electronics technology, and emergency communications techniques and protocols. (3) There is a strong Federal interest in the effective performance of amateur stations established at the residences of amateur operators. Among other reasons, when an emergency arises, it can be too late, and too dangerous, to erect an effective antenna. However, amateur stations have been shown to be frequently and increasingly precluded by unreasonable private land use restrictions, including restrictive covenants. (4) Commission regulations have for more than 3 decades prohibited State and local regulation of amateur station antenna structures that precludes or fails to reasonably accommodate amateur service communications, or that does not constitute the minimum practicable regulation to accomplish a legitimate State or local purpose. The policy of the Commission has been and is to require States and localities to permit erection of a station antenna structure at heights and dimensions sufficient to reasonably accommodate amateur service communications. The Commission struck an appropriate balance by enabling effective use of the amateur service without burdening localities and adjoining properties. (5) The Commission has sought guidance and direction from Congress with respect to the application of the Commission’s limited preemption policy regarding amateur service communications to private land use