The 60-year-old retiree is a fully licensed radio operator and has been involved in the hobby for 20 years.

But a neighbourhood dispute now has him on a collision course for a court date with the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.

Mr Wright’s Annabella Dr home is distinctive because of the powerful 8m antenna projecting above the roofline.

The antenna allows him to broadcast to people on the other side of the world.

Until last week, it was accompanied by three other poles.

But Mr Wright said the council had forced him to disassemble the apparatus after receiving a complaint from a neighbour, who said the antennas were interfering with his radio.

Mr Wright was also slapped with a standard fine for erecting the antennas without approval.

“I’ve got a fine that’s been issued to me for $750 for having these so-called illegal pipes or structures up,” Mr Wright said.

“But they were legal.”

Council building codes require amateur radio operators to obtain approval for their radio stations unless the antennas are less than 6m high or less than 3.5m above the roofline.

Mr Wright said his antennas met those specifications.

However, the council’s development and environmental services director, Matt Rogers, said a building inspection had found the antennas were too high.

“Council received a complaint about amateur radio antennas on the property, and when a council officer inspected the property he saw there was an aerial that had been erected without consent,” Mr Rogers said. “The council officer approached the owner, who was unco-operative, and so as a result the owner of the aerial was issued a fine for [building] the aerial without approval and issued an order to comply.”

But Mr Wright said the council should not have inspected the property in the first place.

“This complaint they followed up was outside of their jurisdiction,” he said. “The interference complaint has nothing to do with them; it comes under the Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA].”

The ACMA is the national body responsible for issuing amateur radio licences.

Mr Wright has vowed not to pay the fine.

“I’m going to have to go to court because there’s no way I’m going to pay it,” he said. “I’ll go to jail before I pay it.”

Mr Wright and his wife Karen, also an amateur radio enthusiast, have written to Port Macquarie MP Peter Besseling.

“We just want the fine to go away and the council to leave us alone,” Mrs Wright said.