Many LPFMers who are fortunate to either live on the side of a hill overlooking some of their broadcast area, or using a friends place/site on a hill will no doubt NOT like height restriction.
Even those broadcasters who have gone through strenuous effort to buy filtering equipment or constructing transmitter towers to best reach their indended community of people, while being mindful of the volatile LPFM environment may disagree, but I believe they are the ones that need to be applauded and I'd expect the govt to consider them first when it comes to applications for community licenses.
NZ is geographically hilly, so yes, height restrictions would limit the range for most LPFM operators, yet the doubling of power would increase the signal strength to the broadcast area instead. Thats the pressing topic from half the correspondence I get from listeners! "when are you increasing your power?". While it won't give us bigger reach, our signal will me much easier to pick up (within the intended b/c area).
Some areas/towns in NZ are elevated like Titirangi, so height restriction may not be the best idea for this area, nor would a community license do anyone any favours because of the altitude (and leaking coverage into other community licensed co-channel zones). However, neighbouring Piha is geographically tricky, but because it is isolated, something like a community license would benefit. I feel if things were dealt on a case by case basis, it would be the best way to tackle power issues. Licensing (even if it results with a special granted MPFM frequency, for example) would be the way forward for those affected by a height restriction.
