Base Top 10 States

[freecell]

is freezing rain and ice loading up your favorite directional antenna in the
winter? here are the top ten states where this will be much less of a problem,
although you may still have to contend with some blowing winds. better one
than both.

.#1. hawaii
.#2. arizona
.#3. california
.#4. colorado
.#5. florida
.#6. new mexico
.#7. louisiana
.#8. texas
.#9. georgia
#10. alabama

 

[midnight special]

i live central florida,,, from may to october is the rainy season with daily tropical downpours but sometimes a heavy thunderstorm with tornadic winds, lightening capital of usa with many colleges using area for lightening studies,,, so all the time hearing some ones tower/antenna being destroyed or lightening hit,,, many operators use metal antennas because firberglass has a high chance of being shreed by a loud boom and bright flash,,, quad beams really get shook up

 

[The20poundhammer]

Colorado is suprising to me would thought they get a lot of snow and ice.

 

[freecell]

they receive a lot of sunlight during the winter, it's hard on the ice.

 

[fourstringburn]

Colorado is suprising to me would thought they get a lot of snow and ice.

NM, Co, and northern Az do get some freezing rain, but not known for it. Usually it's just snow.

Disagree with Texas and the southern states mentioned other than Fl. It's the high humidity states in the winter that get freezing rain and ice.

 

[freecell]

Winter Temperature Averages for Every State.
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-state-temperatures-in-winter.php

 

[Eldorado828]

When people think Texas, most think dfw, the Houston coast line or the Permian but all of those are much different from the high plains. The summers are extremely dry and hot (106 today) and winters roll off of the mountains from New Mexico and Colorado bringing extreme cold with wild snow storms. Year round winds and I'm talking 70mpg gusts being common.

If an antenna can survive the Texas panhandle, I'm willing to say it could probably survive anywhere. I have yet to find one that lives very long. The maco flavors just don't handle a years wind load as I've had more than one bend and break. The fiberglass seem to do better but about a summers worth uv rays and they break like sugar cane. Ice, you have to add wind load and that pretty much says it all.

It's a tough environment here, so maybe we should be excluded from the rest of Texas on the list above.

Getting creative and understanding that you'll have to constantly watch weather and be prepared to take the antenna up and down at a moments notice. It's like pissing in the wind.....

 

[freecell]

even in the top ten states you should always be ready to put the big antenna into stationkeeping and lower the support structure when dangerous weather approaches.

 

[fourstringburn]

@Slowmover and other fellow truck drivers on the forum chime in here…

 

[Handy Andy]

There really is "No safe location" for any sort of antenna - structure or otherwise.
No matter how well it's built or constructed to be able to be lowered or raised.

This was caused by a Derecho in Iowa just last year.​

@freecell - you might want to investigate this further in your research for each one of the 10 states listed are either in some type of Hurricane, Lightning or otherwise unspecified weather related event that can re-arrange the house and the antenna quite effectively without having you to be thanked for the suggestion.

@Tokin - he did up a nice review of a self-rising/collapsible pneumatic-based sectional antenna mast that shows far more promise than listing states that are currently in a Hurricane Zone, Flood Zone or otherwise in an area subjected to inclement weather at any given time of the year.

You might want to promote the concepts of protecting the investment for those whom cannot move by providing options to help in either installations or otherwise protecting the operator when such events do arise.

 

[Slowmover]

@Slowmover and other fellow truck drivers on the forum chime in here…

If it’ll roll your loaded semi over — parked — it’s heavy winds. Weighted. Literally has a punch. It’s already at a high speed . . then hits you with a boilermaker.

Up on the Cap Rock can be unreal.
Ed couldn’t overstate it if he tried.

Southern Plains gets my vote for “toughest”:

See historical map of The Great Dust Bowl.
That is where antennas can’t be fated long lives.


Easiest would be SoCal. They don’t have “weather”, just stasis (and call it climate). Probably part of the reason both JPL and Vandenberg are there. (Telemetry).

.

.

 

[Handy Andy]

Easiest would be SoCal. They don’t have “weather”, just stasis (and call it climate)

Even what the Vagrants leave behind, if it's not burned, it petrifies...

 

[ForestRunner98]

Even what the Vagrants leave behind, if it's not burned, it petrifies...

Hey hey...not a bashing Cali thread!!! Let’s keep on topic. LOL

 

[Handy Andy]

Let’s keep on topic.

It is #3 on the list...

Shake n' Bake or not, if it has not slid into the Pacific, it's usually Sagebrush by now...

 

[Mustang 131]

Hey hey...not a bashing Cali thread!!! Let’s keep on topic. LOL

It hasn't measurably rained in over a year. We have no weather.
Wind on the other hand blows here every time the sun sets.